Every movie has more than just the story if we look closely
at the small details that makes the whole. Drama films tend to be articulate
in this sense and worth dissecting. So let’s get on with it :)
Click here for the movie summary
Click here for the movie summary
Remembering that
decade
This movie is about nostalgia, innocence and unrequited love
at different stages in life. Although this movie is reminiscent of a decade
when I was still too young, I still found myself relating to the story which
I’m sure most people much younger than me do too. This is because regardless of
the time period, everyone has
experienced first love. Everyone has
their own memory of what it was like to have a crush, to have fallen in love or
to have struggled against feelings. It is nostalgic of the times when innocence
had impaired our rationalities, when we failed to see the whole picture and
made decisions based on feelings leaving us vulnerable and hurt. This movie
allowed us to look back and realize how much we’ve grown, how different we are
now, how we have moved on and yet at times still feel those pangs of
bittersweet memories that never seemed to have eased all these years.
For those even older, it is their story played out on a film picture – it was the time of their
fashion, their hair products, their camera films, their gramophones, their
blackboards and CD players. I watched the film with my dad and once in a while
he would lean over and tell me what some of those things were. That’s how big a CD was back then. It’s
called a vinyl. It wasn’t like I didn’t know what it was; he had told me
what they were long before. I guess he was just so lost in his nostalgic memory
that he forgot. I don’t know what recollections my dad had of those days but
for me – entering nostalgia through love experiences are the most lucid ways to
go back in time.
Leaning towards more objective interpretations, the film was
set in the 90’s. It was a time when CDs were starting to replace vinyls,
gramophones with CD players and the more hip-in-with-the-techno kids – portable
CD players. Throughout my life I actually can say I had gone from a portable
cassette player, to a portable CD player, to the mp3s and now the Apple iPods.
I had radio recorded tape playing over and over again in my portable cassette.
It was dope. Mum and dad told me that only people who lived through the 1990s
could tell the relationship between a pencil and a cassette tape. Mum also
found this picture on facebook:
Basically when this happened, the pencil was your bestfriend.
Items that held
status
These items were not only used to symbolize the time period,
but also the division between the wealthier and the poorer members of society.
For example, Jae-Wook was considered wealthy because he owned a 1GB pentium
processor – it was something to marvel at back then. Seo-Yeon was also relatively well
off because she could afford CDs and a CD player, not to mention moving into a
wealthier neighbourhood halfway through the movie and the fact she only looked at wealthy guys. With them, Seung-Min felt out of place, who could only afford a counterfeit GEUSS shirt not even
spelled properly and was the point of mockery in the movie.
His poverty was also used to convey his innocent love. After
hearing Seo-Yeon was planning to move closer to Jae-Wook, Seung-Min urged his
mother that they move too either with the motive of living closer to her, or to
gain better status to win her heart in the materialistic sense.
The Lover and the
Loved
I found that picture somewhere on the internet and thought
it was a precise depiction of the film’s love story. When they were younger it
was Seung-Min who loved Seo-Yeon but in the present, it’s the reverse. The
lighting when they were young was also less crisp – it was soft and dream-like
to represent innocence and memory. The picture above it however shows a much
sharper image illustrating the present time; the immediate reality.
When they were younger, Seung-Min chased after Seo-Yeon but
lacked the confidence to be more upfront because of his poverty; he couldn’t
fight for her, he was a push-over when it came to Jae-Wook and his love remained unrequited. For Seo-Yeon, material wealth was important to her, she even told Seung-Min during her birthday that one day she will be wealthy or at least marry a wealthy guy. She even went as far as to win Jae-Wook over by
moving closer to him. I also thought she spoke in a way that belittled
Seung-Min but he was just so caught up in his love that he didn’t realise.
In the present, Seo-Yeon had finally realised her first love
and went looking for Seung-Min. After gaining her wealth but living a miserable
life she soon realised that putting herself before the one she loved had its
consequences. He had moved on and matured from his innocent love. Even in the
future she spoke in a way that belittled him only difference now is that Seung-Min doesn’t
lose his head. He can now argue with her to get his point across and doesn’t fall to
his knees each time anymore.
Seung-Min and Seo-Yeon never met in the middle. For him, he
had realised his first love at the right time – during innocence. For her, she
realised when it was too late. After experiencing a miserable life, she wanted
to return to the past. But through her we also learn that we can’t always just go
back there. The past is simply pleasant memory and it will or won't give us comfort.
A house is not a home
Multiple times in the movie we get the idea that a house is
not a home. A house is simply an inanimate structure and to become a home it
has to be made alive by what lives inside. For example, when Seung-Min and
Seo-Yeon had come across the vacant house, it was just an edifice, but Seo-Yeon
wanted to make it more alive by setting the clock work and gardening some
plants. At the end of the film those plants never grew because their friendship
had stopped, and the house was left unoccupied until the first snow fall. No
one was there to nurture them and make them live.
This is probably also related to the Spicy Soup Seo-Yeon was talking about. No matter what you put inside it will remain spicy. Relative to her, whatever her experiences are in life nothing ever changes her.
This is probably also related to the Spicy Soup Seo-Yeon was talking about. No matter what you put inside it will remain spicy. Relative to her, whatever her experiences are in life nothing ever changes her.
Their lecturer also pointed out ambiguously the relationship between people and places – like travelling to a far location to
see how people interact with their environment, or doing something fun to get
an idea of what house they’ll be designing. This is merely to say that how we
relate to buildings depend on how we interact with our environment.
This is further highlighted towards the end when Seung-Min spoke to his mother before leaving for the US. He had asked her if she wanted to move somewhere smaller – isn’t she sick of living in this house? But his mother replied, what kind of house do you get sick of – a house is just a house. Seung-Min looks around the house and sees his old GEUSS shirt now worn by his mother. When he goes outside to smoke he sees the dent he made on the gate. Clearly, this was not just a house for Seung-Min, it was a place that held memories. Now we get a sense of why he doesn’t visit his mother that often. His mother probably had not wanted to move either because of the memories she has of the place.
Similarly, we see the human relationship with buildings when Seo-Yeon thought the floor plan of the new house looked unfamiliar. She wanted them to renovate the house instead of building from scratch to keep some of her childhood memories alive.
This is further highlighted towards the end when Seung-Min spoke to his mother before leaving for the US. He had asked her if she wanted to move somewhere smaller – isn’t she sick of living in this house? But his mother replied, what kind of house do you get sick of – a house is just a house. Seung-Min looks around the house and sees his old GEUSS shirt now worn by his mother. When he goes outside to smoke he sees the dent he made on the gate. Clearly, this was not just a house for Seung-Min, it was a place that held memories. Now we get a sense of why he doesn’t visit his mother that often. His mother probably had not wanted to move either because of the memories she has of the place.
Similarly, we see the human relationship with buildings when Seo-Yeon thought the floor plan of the new house looked unfamiliar. She wanted them to renovate the house instead of building from scratch to keep some of her childhood memories alive.
A building is not only just a place of memory but also tells
about a person. For example Seung-Min found out more about Seo-Yeon than what
she had let him on. Just the sheer fact of talking about buildings and designing them had already told Seung-Min more than he should know. Even in the beginning, he
tells her that a house should suit the person who dwells in it as the house
will ultimately reflect its dwellers.
Plants and Model
Houses
The plants were also symbolic of their stages in life. When
they did the gardening at the vacant house, those seeds were very immature and
both Seung-Min and Seo-Yeon were left guessing what they will grow to be. This was simply a statement on their innocence and uncertain futures. The same scene is repeated at
Seo-Yeon’s newly renovated house but that time they planted already grown
plants thus symbolizing maturity – there are no surprises on what those will grow to
be, they’re already grown and heading towards a direction.
This same idea is reflected in the model house and the real house Seung-Min designed for Seo-Yeon. It showed their progression from innocence to maturity and is metaphorical to the idea of both finally finding closure. Just like in
architecture, you begin a project with a model and finish the project after having
constructed the model into a life-size edifice. For a long time she had held
onto the model while still holding on to the hope of finding him again. It was
only until he finished its construction that she told him, so it’s all over. After finishing that project Seung-Min had to
move on, and so it is with all the different chapters in our lives.
While she redesigned her house over and over again during the
story, she was also redesigning her life. She didn’t want anything to do with a
piano when they were young because she wanted to be wealthy, but asking him to make a room for a piano at adulthood was her
idea of shedding all those materialistic things she had chased all her life.
She wanted to go back to the beginning and start again; to go back to her
innocence. Towards the end of the film she had washed off her make-up, got rid
of her high fashion dresses and heels, and replacing it all with comfortable
clothing and bare feet.
Gaepo-Dong
Their lecturer had once asked them to go somewhere far in the
weekend but what their definition of far was up to them. Seo-Yeon and
Seung-Min’s definition of far were completely different from each other. For
Seo-Yeon who lived at Jeju, going to Gaepo-Dong was not far at all. On the
other hand, Seung-Min who lived in the same neighbourhood all his life considered
Gaepo-Dong, the last stop on his bus, quite far. So when Seung-Min didn’t want to see Seo-Yeon anymore,
and told her to get lost, we find that in the future she had lived at
Gaepo-Dong. We can speculate that perhaps it was her way of being far enough
for Seung-Min yet close enough to be near him.
Nab Ddeuk
I found him an interesting character and often wondered what
his role had been. Perhaps he was the voice of reason or voice of the
allegories. In some ways, he may not be intellectually mature, but he seemed
wise when it came to life. He acted as the one who’s been there done that and relative to Seung-Min, knew just as much about girls as he knew about life. He was an old soul
pondering the fact happiness had two ‘p’s – meaning it could only be found
between two people. It certainly didn't have 3 p's.
He introduced our innocent Seung-Min to the hair mousse and cigarettes. Nab Ddeuk probably represented those moments of change in our
past just as Seung-Min seemed to change whenever he was with Nab Ddeuk – such as
learning what it was like to kiss, how to puff a cig, how to be self-conscious
about his image, to cry for the first time from heartache. Nab Ddeuk was the agent of change.
However, Nab Ddeuk was also a very local character, we never really see him in other scenes but the neighbourhood and Seung-Min always knew where to find him. We don’t see him in the future either. Nab Ddeuk is merely an existence in our memory – the place we always go back to when we’re down and out. We return to our past, and live in our history until we find the strength to move on again. But like Nab Ddeuk, our memories give us no help but does provide a sense of comfort.
However, Nab Ddeuk was also a very local character, we never really see him in other scenes but the neighbourhood and Seung-Min always knew where to find him. We don’t see him in the future either. Nab Ddeuk is merely an existence in our memory – the place we always go back to when we’re down and out. We return to our past, and live in our history until we find the strength to move on again. But like Nab Ddeuk, our memories give us no help but does provide a sense of comfort.
