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Neoui Sigan Sogeuro (2023)
Remember Vanilla Sky and Open Your Eyes (Abre los ojos)
I binged this after finishing the original, Someday or One Day (Taiwan, 2019), a 3rd time. Then I watched Someday or One Day the movie (Taiwan, 2022) a 2nd time. So I watched this with the intention of comparing it against the original. I rated this remake one star lower. Here are my thoughts.
First, there is a generational masterpiece hidden in the original, when combined with the movie which was penned by a third writer, not by the original TV series' pair of male/female writers. As a romance/science fiction, the "logic" aspects are not a problem, though not everything was explained in the narrative. You have to rewatch, pause, rewind, and spend some effort thinking. If you read Chinese, look for the analyses and interviews. If you are concerned about "logic" and feel the effort is not a fair requirement, or you don't have the time or energy, watching this Korean remake won't help.
Comparing A Time Called You with Someday or One Day, amusingly, reminds me of Vanilla Sky, a 2001 hollywood remake of the 1997 Spanish film Open Your Eyes. Korean entertainment industry is now the hollywood of East Asia. With American (Netflix in this case) financial backing, just the production quality and skill level of the contributors will net some areas that bested the original. To me, it is apparent in the latter half of the story when murder became a focus. The small modifications to the story, the pacing, the acting of Min Jin-woong as Oh Chan-yeong, etc., made this element of the story almost reasonable. But personally I think the evil character is the worst part of the original script. It should not belong in the "generational masterpiece" hidden in this creation.
Someday or One Day is about suicide and depression, triggered by unrequited love. It is dark and depressing. I had expected Koreans to do well in the remake because they have excelled with such themes for decades. Perhaps as in the case of Vanilla Sky, too much darkness and gloom would not sell to the popcorn-eating average viewer. Just as the punchline told us, I shouldn't expect too much.
You see, two of the main characters are clearly suicidal. Having watched the original, both Yu-hsuan (Jun-hee) and Zi-wei (Si-heon) had thoughts about ending it all as well, specifically towards the end. I am not even counting the homosexual Chuan-sheng, and I will let you draw your own conclusion as to what eventually happened to Yu-hsuan.
Yu-hsuan (Jun-hee) was depressed to a point that she was seeing a psychiatrist. This is what the two doppelgangers had in common. That Yu-hsuan (Jun-hee) and her whole timeline were perhaps all created by Yun-ru (Min-ju) is a beautiful conceit of this masterpiece. I think the major flaw of A Time Called You is the brightness of the high school romance when Jun-hee was in the body of Min-ju. Yu-hsuan (Jun-hee) was depressed. There were funny, sweet moments to show that Zi-wei (Si-heon) was able to draw her out of her depression, because of his personality and because he was oblivious to what was to come. To him, the "future" was probably just fiction told by the "loopy" Yun-ru (Min-ju). To her, perhaps Chuan-sheng (Yeon-jun) was no longer dead. Here Jeon Yeo-been appeared to have overacted, whereas Ahn Hyo-seop underacted. There was also the unrequited love from Jun-jie (In-gyu). But I felt that I was just shown a romantic comedy of high-schoolers. I think the director was probably to blame here. I do appreciate the skill in portraying the difference between the two female doppelgangers by Jeon. But how I wish the Korean team were on the same page to turn up the sadness in this part. Act sweet and giddy while not letting us forget Jun-hee's depression. I know they are so capable of that! And they could have bested the original easily.
The biggest spoiler is in the next paragraph.
*** MAJOR SPOILER ALERT ***
The most cherished time period should be the main span of the time loop, when Yu-shuan (Jun-hee) met "Chuan-sheng (Yeon-jun)" in university, until his "death". Those were the best times of their lives. How the loop works hangs on how two copies of Zi-wei (Si-heon) could have communicated with or influenced each other. We were shown that directly only in the airport departure scene(s) for one example, at the end of the span. But that must not be the only manifestation. Viewer's effort is required here. The upshot is that Zi-wei (Si-heon) wanted to preserve the loop. For that, Chuan-sheng (Yeon-jun) had to be on that plane and die. Like Yu-hsuan (Jun-hee), he could not move on. The limited scenes devoted to this period, in sacrificial contrast to the saccharine high school period, weakened the motive for the central plot device.
*** END OF SPOILERS ***
Finally, if you clicked past the spoiler warning but scrolled here to look for a recommendation to either watch this or the original, pick your adventure below:
Did you like Vanilla Sky or Open Your Eyes? If you didn't like either, you probably shouldn't watch this long-form teleplay (12 hours or more)!
If you liked Vanilla Sky and didn't care when told the Spanish original was better, A Time Called You is for you.
If you liked Open Your Eyes better than Vanilla Sky, please watch the original Someday or One Day. Thumbs up for having seen both Open Your Eyes and Vanilla Sky! You probably enjoy figuring out the mystery yourself. Then you should also watch Someday or One Day the movie after the TV series, and be prepared to rack your brain for days and then rewatch them again.
Xiang jian ni (2022)
For People Already Invested in the TV Series
This movie should be viewed only after completing the TV series of the same name. You still may not find the narrative satisfactory unless you have invested much time and thought in the TV series to understand its message and plot, including the time travel mechanics, to a degree that you accept to be sufficiently rational for a dramatic fiction. Such method of viewing is only practical with modern network streaming services.
I left this review after watching the original TV series a 3rd time, before binging the Korean remake (A Time Called You), and then watching this movie for a 2nd time, while pausing and rewinding frequently during the latter half to think through what was being shown. I agree that the production deliberately avoided making it a sequel to the TV series. There were probably many decisions driven by commercial and marketing concerns. But I must rate this film highly because it showed an elegant way to eliminate the possibly only flaw in the TV series that had prevented it from becoming a piece of art - the deus ex machina that gave an excuse for blaming the characters' misfortunes on "evil". Note that the scriptwriter of this movie is different from the pair of scriptwriters for the TV series.
Also note that my understanding benefited from the many discussions and interviews about the original TV series and this movie that were available in Chinese. Viewers who do not read Chinese may have to spend more effort.
The solution offered by this film can be incorporated into a modification of the entire story originated in the TV series to make it into a long form (TV) drama that might be rated 10/10 in my opinion. On top of this, the movie in its current form stayed true to the spirit, message, style and mood of the original TV series, and they were just right for the story. If you have already invested time and thought in the TV series and taken its message to heart, you must not miss this movie!
Geon-chook-hak-gae-ron (2012)
A Cultural Epithet about First Love
After so many years, I feel it is necessary to point out for most audience, especially from the West, that the object of pursuit in contemporary Asian tales about "first love", is NOT "love", at least not in the way you understand that term. In fact, it is usually an aspiration, or idealism. Something one has when one is young, and which has since been suppressed, or lost.
Viewed in that light, I hope it is easier to understand the protagonists' motives and actions. The drama comes abundantly in showcasing all the insecurities about social-economic status, peer pressure, sex and more, that one is willing to endure so long as one believes the objective is just around the corner. They end up haunting us for far longer than we want to admit.
Architecture 101 picks an axe to grind. It does so at a sure and steady pace. All along we have just been groping in the dark. We still are. In the end, the only consolation is that we know we miss each other, and the aspirations. We know we missed. We need to let more light into the house.
A Ghost Story (2017)
Nothing New
The user reviews are hilarious.
For the people who genuinely liked this movie, I get you. But honestly, nothing about the message, its exposition, or the delivery technique, was new or innovative. It has all been done before, and better. Watch more movies. I recommend Korean ones and their TV dramas in recent decades as well. Similar themes are a staple. Even if you did not manage to pick those that blow A Ghost Story out of the water, you would at least be feasting your eyes on the beautiful Korean heartthrobs and equally beautiful mise en scènes.