Classic (Korea, 2003)

Okay, I'll forgive Kwak Jae-young for his weird obsession with Bach, Satie, Pachelbel and dancing in the rain scenes (the one in Classic is actually nice and not too sweet). It is actually hard to imagine that the director of My Sassy Girl and Windstruck (the former a rather raunchy romantic comedy and the latter, well, a mess) is the same person who came up with such a well made movie.

Two love stories both set after the Korean War, the first between Ju-hie (Son Ye-jin) and Joon-ha (Cho Seung-woo) in the waning years of the military junta and the little known involvement of the Korean Republic in the Vietnam War, the second between Ju-hie's daughter, the college student Ji-hae (also played by Son Ye-jin) and Sang-min. It seems that Korea is more at ease with its dictatorial past than say Japan. But the military junta only provides a backdrop to Ju-hie and Joon-ha's story. Yet, we see the critique of class division in this relationship. Ju-hie is the daughter of a congressman and is betrothed to Joon-ha's best friend, Joon-ha is a young man with no connections who would later enlist in the army.

While we don't see much of Ji-hae and Sang-min's relationship, we see how it is impacted by and redeems what happened during the generation of their parents.

Stylistically, Classic reminds me a bit of the cinematography of Kitano Takeshi's ソナチネ (Sonatine) for its long and painterly depiction of rural landscapes (mostly during Ju-hie's scenes) and Isao Takahata's ホタルの墓 (Grave of the Fireflies), which is why I was so surprised by Kwak Jae-young.