A Season for Love

This review is brought to you courtesy of movieXclusive, otherwise you'll probably have to wait until a week or two.

It's been some time since I've watched a movie with a relative huge ensemble cast (think the last was Crash), and little did I expect this Korean romance movie to boost the same too, with fine acting, good comedy and lots of love demonstrated in various ways.

There are 4 separate stories in this film, and it's difficult for me to judge which of them is superior than the other. Each looked into its niche area, and have ample screen time to develop its story, though the characters do get intertwined in one another's story with little conscious interaction.

The first concerns a firefighter and his girlfriend, who works in a TV station as a news translator for the mute. She's waiting for him to propose, focused on the rationale that given his dangerous job, she likes the idea of him having to think of her, to hesitate for a while before jumping into danger. He, on the other hand, is waiting for that perfect opportunity, setting and all, before popping the question. Initially I thought that this was the most stable of the relationships, until they hit a brick wall in their communications, and as usual, misunderstanding ensues.

Breaking down of communications also happen between the firefighter and his soon-to-be sister-in-law, but that provided some of the best comedic situations in the movie. She's mute, and had her life saved by him (but he fell for the sister, so don't ask). She works as a Snow White doll in a theme park, and gets infatuated with a painter who frequents the same park. However, she's slightly disfigured on her face, and hides behind the Snow White caricature all the time. I found this to be something that I could relate to, being shy, yet bold when hiding behind a mask. Given by the audience's reaction, this piece probably is the most popular with its identifiable theme of infatuation, and the cutesy way in which it got played out.

The third story is about a mother-son relationship. The mother, being a career woman, hardly gets to interact with her child, and the son misses his mother badly. Until an illness confines her to the hospital bed, and they start to bond as mother-son would, given plenty of communication opportunities. However, as the story unfolds, it's also the most predictable of the lot. It's touching, but not as touching as the mother-son relationship in the Japanese movie Be With You last year.

The last story, and perhaps the saddest of all, is between a boy and a girl who've broken up. The girl's stuck in a dead end job and yearns to be rescued by an economically stable guy, but the guy's she's in love with (or used to be) is perpetually stuck in unemployment. When they broke up, the circumstances under which it was told to him, brought him an entrepreneurial opportunity. He tries to woo back his love, and I felt that the ending for this segment was the best in the way it developed, with the fine cinematography of reflection and rain.

The soundtrack is kept simple, with the theme song played over and over again in various situations. But somehow it's strange, that the same song, when played, seemed able to evoke the different emotions the situation wants from you. And that I'd tip my hat off to.

Halfway through, I thought that it would make a nice Valentine's movie, with its bountiful picturesque and heartwarming moments. But by its ending, even though events played out is typical of a weepy, I'd still recommend it for this season of love, for the plain message of not taking a significant other, a loved one, for granted. Tell them "I Love You", now.