Program Note
In the realm of Korean melodrama, this movie established Son Yejin as the “Queen of Pure Melodrama.” Director Kwak Jae-yong, who previously discovered Gianna Jun in My Sassy Girl (2001), found a new muse in Son Yejin. She masterfully plays dual roles: Ji-hye, a college student in love with her theater club senior, Sang-min (Zo Insung), and her mother, Ju-hie, when she experienced her first love and looked just like Ji-hye.
Ju-hie chooses not to marry Tae-soo (Lee Ki-woo), the man her high-ranking military father picked for her. Instead, she falls in love with Joon-ha (Cho Seung-woo), a genuine and kind man from the countryside. Ju-hie’s first appearance on the screen, with her hair neatly braided sitting on a bullock cart, brings to mind the classic feel of Hwang Sun-won’s short story A Shower. Her love letters to Joon-ha, where she mentions the dugout canoe on the riverbank and the lookout hut they shared, resonate with a timeless sentimentality to this day. Iconic scenes, such as Ji-hye running through the rain under Zo Insung’s coat and the tearful reunion between Ju-hie and Joon-ha with the famous line, “I’m crying right now,” have been paid homage to in numerous melodramas and romance films. (NA Won-jeong)