Il Mare (Siwore, 2000)

Lee Hyun-Seung

Korea

94 min, color, Korean (English subtitles)

I don't know whether there is some special predilection of Korean filmmakers to create dramas around two main characters, but the recent streak of diverse films like The Isle, La Belle, and Christmas in August seems to point to some such phenomenon. Maybe the undiluted feeling that two human beings can develop for each other finds a better expression in the sparse setting, or maybe this scarcity of "others" allows the makers to frame their narrative more carefully, or maybe even this is a device to keep the audience from getting distracted with minor and potentially confusing extraneous detail. At any rate, the strange sense of closeness with the actors, regardless of whether they act in the claustrophobic confines of a single apartment or amid the breathtaking vistas of a lake or ocean shores, creates a sort of participatory intimacy that draws in the audience, transforming it from a passive mass of voyeur into inquisitive actors themselves.

It is not likely that a film like IL Mare would have one question the premise of one's own existence or re-evaluate one's love relationships. It is above all a fantasy, a dreamy romance, that satisfies the cravings for the innocence of pure attraction, now somehow lost amid the rush to bed the other. When Kim Eun-Ju (Jeon Ji-Hyeon) leaves her waterfront house called "IL Mare" to move into a newly built apartment complex, she leaves a letter to the next occupant asking him to forward her mail. Han Sung-Hyun (Lee Jeong-Jae) moves into "IL Mare," the house designed by his estranged architect father and built by his aunt. He finds the letter in the mailbox. The only problem? He lives in 1997, and her letter is dated 1999. The two realize that they can communicate with each other by placing objects in the mailbox for the other to find.

The film traces the development of a close friendship between the two romantics as each struggles to overcome his/her own ghosts. Sung-Hyun's obstinate refusal to mend the fences with his dad, which leads him to abandon the architecture profession and become a construction worker, comes to a painful end when his father dies. Eun-Ju tries to come to grips with the realization that her fiancee, who has gone to the US to study animation, has deserted her for another. Helping each other through the difficult times with empathy born of their similar experiences, the two find intimacy that they do not share with their contemporaries. Even though Sung-Hyun falls in love with Eun-Ju, whom he manages to meet in her past, he resolves to help restore her failed relationship with her ex when she asks him to.

The innovative communication device works wonders in the film. The excellent direction and superb camera work glue together the two time periods to create a seamless narrative that sometimes makes one forget that the two main characters live two years apart. It is especially touching when the two share walks and roller-coaster rides even while separate, or drink wine in the same establishment, a bottle he has reserved for her. It is all the more disturbing then when they set a date to meet in her time (two years in Sung-Hyun's future) and when he fails to show. Is two years such a long time?

Although I like happy endings as much as the next guy (or girl), I must say that I preferred the tragic ending better. Not only the final scene seemed tacked-on and rather artificial but it also makes no logical sense. If he avoided death by reading her note and then met her before they started to exchange letters in the future, then, without the exchange, there is no letter to prevent him from dying. Actually, there's no letter from which he would even know about her. It probably makes no sense to seek logic in a time-travel scenario, but the rest of the film flowed quite smoothly and arose no objections from me. In addition, I thought that the tragic ending was much more powerful.

The Spectrum R3 DVD is (mostly) excellent. The letterboxed picture is crisp, with no noticeable scratches or compression defects. The Korean soundtrack is also well balanced with almost no noise in the quiet parts. There is a slight manufacturing defect that causes the picture to appear slightly stretched horizontally on regular TVs. Setting the DVD player to 16:9 (or, my Hollywood Plus card to Pan&Scan) fixes it. My only complaint is with the subtitles. The translation is very much below Korean standards, and is more like a Hong Kong release. The letters are nice and readable, but the translation is full of grammatical and spelling errors. It is not difficult to follow the story, especially if one is used to HK releases, but it is an unwelcome distraction. Still, the DVD is worth having and the film is worth watching more than once.

September 29, 2001.