Movie: Architecture 101 Summary

Also known as: Introduction to Architecture; 건축학개론

Starring: Uhm Taewoong, Han Ga-in, Lee Je-hoon, Bae Suzy

Plot

This is simply a love story that could have been. The plot revolves around old college classmates who parted ways only to find each other again 15 years into the future. Now, one is divorced while the other is preparing for his wedding. Their history is dug up in a nostalgic story around architecture intertwined with events during their younger days. Will they finally find the answers to questions they have long held unanswered? Will he falter tying the knot with his fiancé and will she be able to bring him back to her? Or will they learn that fleeting moments in history will simply remain fleeting?

My Initial Thoughts

So this movie stars the famous Uhm Tae Woong, first introduced in this blog from my 1N2D post. His amazing portrayal of his character finally helped me understand why he is considered as one of Korea’s best actors. I never thought I could erase even for a moment the wacky, doofy, adorkable person he is after witnessing him on 1N2D – but his prowess in acting helped me forget what he’s  like in real life and become really absorbed in his intelligent, rational character.

Left: His usual doofball self, Right: Professional Actor

I love movies like this; movies that take a journey back into the past and give that nostalgic feeling. This movie has one of those things I love in a love story, a geeky leading man trying to get the girl in his own reserved way. To make matters worse the girl he is trying to win also happen to be in a world of her own, carrying an irrational indecisive character. I think Bae Suzy did a fine job being that un-phased character who needed no explanation on the things she does. And, how can I forget the leading man's side-kick, his go-to when he needed advice only to be guided in yet another clueless direction from where he started? Jo Jung-suk is such a nutter but entertaining nevertheless!

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Movie Recap (Spoilers Ahead)

The movie opens with Seo-Yeon inspecting her old family home in Jeju Island. Seung-Min, an architect, had been up all night finishing a project and is told a visitor is waiting to see him. The visitor happens to be Seo-Yeon but he doesn’t register who she is at first. Seo-Yeon takes offence but merely brushes it aside when he says he hadn't forgotten who she was only that he didn’t recognize her face; it’s been a while after all. He finds that Seo-Yeon is now married with a doctor and lives in Gaepo-dong, yet the way she says it is blunt and as one detached from it all.

Seo-Yeon wanted him to design her house in Jeju Island but Seung-Min suspects something; why would a rich woman build a house in Jeju instead of the flourishing Gangnam if it's for investment? He talks condescendingly to her about throwing her money around and she takes offence and walks out. However, he is quick to put her mysteries aside and apologized explaining he only wanted to know the reason for building there so that he could design a house to suit her.

They take a trip to Jeju Island together to see her old home while she tells him what life was like after University. She confessed she had not been able to become an announcer as she dreamed so she took the easier path and married a well off husband.

Having examined the Jeju house, Seung-Min was able to draw up a floor plan only to have Seo-Yeon disinterested and rejecting it. The design was too unfamiliar she says.

During a coffee break, Seung-Min’s colleague, Eun-Chae, asked Seo-Yeon what her team leader was like during University. How was it that Seo-Yeon even came to know her boss when she had studied music and he had studied architecture? To Seo-Yeon’s pleasure, she says back then he was ugly, had no affinity with women and liked to chase her around. 

We get our first flash back into the 80s and Seo-Yeon had arrived at the first architecture lecture late. That, however, was enough to catch Seung-Min’s attention. Each student had traced their route from home to the University and it was here that Seung-Min found she lived in his neighbourhood. I love how they spent some time on that cut as he traced his marker next to hers. I guess that’s where the he chased me around joke came from. There was only one person in the architecture class Seo-Yeon knew and it was Seung-Min’s wealthy senior friend, Jae-Wook. 

On the bus ride home, Seung-Min watches Seo-Yeon’s reflection on the window pane and she catches him looking. Cute. He follows her home though not intentionally – they lived in the same area. His friend Nab Ddeuk bumps into him and asks whether he likes the girl he’s following. Heh, sharp dude. We learn that Nab Ddeuk also would have been studying at the University if he hadn’t been brought down a grade. Nab Ddeuk proceeds to show him something cool – a hair mousse. Seung-Min says it’s rubbish.

While taking pictures of the built environment, Seung-Min spots Seo-Yeon and feigns taking pictures of ants to avoid facing her. Unlike him, she’s more confrontational and actually tells him that he knows her. They get to know each other while visiting a vacant house. Here she tells him that he should help her with their assignments as she only recently moved to the neighbourhood. It’s cute how he can’t seem to drop formal speech even when asked to. 

A new assignment had them observing the environment of somewhere they considered far. For Seung-Min, this meant riding to the very last stop of the bus, at Gaepo-Dong. On top of a building they have a panoramic view of the whole area while listening to a band called Exhibition using Seo-Yeon’s CD player. Plugged with a sad song of confession playing in their background, Seung-Min looks at her completely smitten.

The camera shifts back to the present and we see Seung-Min looking at Seo-Yeon with that same look probably re-living for a moment the feelings he once had (or still have) for her. It is also the first time we see feelings from the past finally being dug up.

They decided to renovate the house rather than build it from scratch perhaps to give it that sense of familiarity Seo-Yeon thought was missing from the original plan. She had invited him for a drink only to have Eun-Chae join them to her disappointment. Seo-Yeon inquires of him whether he has a girlfriend, and if he wanted, she can introduce him to someone. When Seung-Min had excused himself, Eun-Chae admitted quite pleased that Seung-Min is actually engaged to her but they wanted to keep it quiet for the moment. Seo-Yeon tries to hide even more disappointment. Eun-Chae wanted to learn more about her fiancé’s past and asked Seo-Yeon who his first love was, the one who deserved to die? Seo-Yeon looked at Eun-Chae confused while Seung-Min grows tense. You can actually see it on his face that the hurt he had hoped to forget was starting to resurface.

After learning that Seo-Yeon’s father is in the hospital we revert back in the past.

Seung-Min finds that his wealthy senior friend, Jae-Wook, was quite a playboy. When their other friend had asked Jae-Wook if he’s ever played with Seo-Yeon before, it’s Seung-Min who takes offence. Later, Seung-Min confronts Seo-Yeon, not directly as she would do it but in his own, reserved – beat around the bush – way. But Seo-Yeon merely asked him what reason has she to step inside Jae-Wook’s house. This lightens his mood only for a moment until she admits that she actually does like Jae-Wook and is only attending architecture lectures because of him. That night, Seung-Min visits his friend, Nab Ddeuk, to get some advice on girls only to be told hilariously that he should confess to her while reeking with alcohol.

 

In the present Seo-Yeon asks Seung-Min whether she was the girl – his first love who deserved to die. He bluffs asking who was she to think like that. On their way back from Jeju they get into a little spat when Seo-Yeon tells Seung-Min to treat his mother better. Seung-Min retaliates by asking how she would know about relationships when she lived on her own. Being found she doesn’t actually live with her husband had her admitting to him that she's quite pitiful. He takes her out for some soju to talk it over. There, she compares herself to Spicy Soup – it doesn’t matter what goes inside this soup, its name will never change, if chicken gets chucked in there it won’t be called Chicken Soup, it will remain Spicy Soup.

Once again we return to the past; Seung-Min and Seo-Yeon are given yet another assignment – find what kind of house they want to design for themselves by going out and doing something fun. It also happens to be Seo-Yeon’s birthday and they head out to drink. 

Seo-Yeon says in ten years’ time she will become an announcer, so he’ll have to design her house for her because she won’t be able to do it herself. As she draws her dream house, he watches her completely love struck. She even gives him her Exhibition CD as a deposit. That night Seo-Yeon had fallen asleep on Seung-Min’s shoulder waiting for the bus home. He steals a kiss from her. When she wakes, he looks at her petrified as though he's committed a crime. So adorable.

Hilariously, Seung-Min reports his kiss to Nab Ddeuk only to be told what a real kiss is like. That’s some kiss he’s talking about. After waiting for Seo-Yeon to finish practicing being an announcer over the University PA, Jae-Wook decided to take both of them home. In the car, Seung-Min feigns sleeping while he listens to both of them flattering each other and both mocking his favourite GEUSS shirt. When he gets home, he takes his anger out on the gate and his GEUSS shirt. How can he possibly compete with a wealthy guy while he’s stuck in his poverty?

Seung-Min goes back to Nab Ddeuk for some advice and he tells Seung-Min he should really confess to her – maybe when the first snow falls. Seo-Yeon had moved closer to where Jae-Wook lived and while helping her move her stuff, Seung-Min asked her to meet him at the vacant house at the first snow-fall. It's a promise. We also learn that Seung-Min had no CD player but he puts the CD on top of a gramophone and starts dancing anyway. Aw.

Back in the present, Seung-Min takes her out for lunch. It’s 11/11 – her birthday. As a present, she asks him to widen the courtyard and make a room for a piano. This last request is for her father – she wants to send him off hearing music coming from the piano which he so loved. He considers it then agrees despite the deadline approaching, much to his company’s opposition. They had wanted him to work less and focus his attention on his wedding next month. But he pushes Seo-Yeon’s request through, even sleeping at Jeju Island to ensure the project is finished on time. We also see a picture of what the house will become and it’s totally amazing. She has a lawn on her roof which is quite reminiscent of the day they stood on the roof at Gaepo-Dong listening to Exhibition.

We return to the past and the semester had ended. Seo-Yeon looked everywhere for Seung-Min but he was nowhere to be found. Meanwhile, he’s at her new place practicing how to confess to her. It’s cute, especially when awkward guys like him do it. He had put together a model of her dream house and he looks at it saying he likes it. He figures just like that he’ll tell her simply that he likes her. Next thing we see is her getting dragged home by Jae-Wook, who steals a kiss from her. He takes her to her room, and listening by her door Seung-Min hears them making out; but we don’t see it. He takes his anger out on a cab driver. I find it endearing that it’s Nab Ddeuk who tries to cheer him up. The following day, Seo-Yeon sees a model of her dream house by the trash along with the original drawing she had given to Seung-Min.

Back in the present Seo-Yeon and Seung-Min do the gardening on her lawn. They talk about how it’s over – meaning building her house, but you can feel that it also alludes to their relationship. All those years ago – those days that abruptly ended – had finally found its closure. He had built the house he promised her, and even confessed how much he had liked her. She says she knew it all along – even that kiss he stole from her that night at the bus stop. Even at this point she doesn’t tell him her feelings until towards the end when he accidentally finds the model house he had built for her. Was there another reason for her to find him except to build her house? He gets angry that she’s held onto the past for so long and when she finally confessed that she liked him too, they share their first and last kiss. We get a flash back.

Seo-Yeon had gone to see him, maybe after the next semester’s class? He returns the CD to her admitting that he didn’t have a CD player. With that, he tells her to leave him alone and never look for him again. In the present, Seo-Yeon’s father tells her the hospital is now useless and wants to go home, so she shows him the house they’ll be living in. Meanwhile, Seung-Min goes home to visit his mother, who now wore his GEUSS shirt, as she gives him all her savings as a blessing for his wedding. Probably the reason why he didn’t like going home was the fact too many things at home reminded him of the past.

We get the final flashback; it's the first snowfall and Seo-Yeon had gone to the vacant house to meet Seung-Min as promised only to find it empty. She waits until nightfall before retreating only leaving her CD and player. The plants also never grew, and life didn’t grow there.

In the present Seung-Min flies off to the US with Eun-Chae as newly weds. On the other hand, Seo-Yeon’s father listens to the piano as she tutors her student. A courier had come to give her a package from Seung-Min. When she opens it, she finds her Exhibition CD and the CD player. Seung-Min had gone to the vacant house that night after all. I guess that was the reason why he was so mad at her after she confessed to him because all this time neither of them had closure.

In the end, everything they needed to know had been revealed through their last architecture project and everything had found its place and its end. History remains in the past and those at present will only need to continue forward.