A Moment to Remember (2004)
South Korea; 117min
Drama, Romance
Director: John H. Lee
Writer: John H. Lee, Yeong-ha Kim
Stars: Woo-sung Jung, Ye-jin Son, Jong-hak Baek

Romantic dramas are definitely one of the genres with the greatest amount of bad representatives, but from time to time, as with most things, there is an exception.
A Moment to Remember is a multilayered story with stereotypical protagonists, a rich girl, Su-jin, and poor construction worker, Cheol-su, who coincidentally works for her father. However, everything else is far from being stereotyped. The story is in chronological order but it can be divided into several parts.

 At the beginning we meet Su-jin at the moment of her's worst emotional state after her lover left her. She first run into Cheol-su in the shop, and shortly afterwards, while visiting  building site which her father manages she founds out that Cheol-su works there. Then we get to know like a rather vulgar, but honest and principled construction worker who aspires to become an architect. Coincidentally the duo meets once again slowly begins to develop their more intimate relationship. Despite initial skepticism from Cheol-su they soon start living together and after some time they got married. Here ends the first part of the moive, which is not very different from a bunch of other romantic dramas and begins the second part which is most easily described as an emotional roller coaster.

After brief, seemingly idyllic marriage, Su-Jin learns that she is suffering from Alzheimer's. Introduction to this fact has been long considering that her forgetfulness is mentioned many times before diagnosis. Here begins a part of the film that makes it's story different from the others.
Woo-sung Jung and Son Ye-jin are brilliant in the lead roles. Writing is definitely meritorious for that performance since their characters are deeply developed. John H. Lee, who is slightly less famous Korean new wave filmmaker has done a great job. Objections are going to use of the camera in some scenes and music that is great but sometimes over-used. There is an obvious attempt to give musical background to every strong emotion of the main characters, but some scenes simply need less or no music.
The story is one of those that pins viewer to screen, even if he's the biggest hater of romance movies. It is not original, but it's widely developed and just stays in the memory. The secondary characters are all stereotypical, but blend to the story perfectly, just like comedy sequences.

Koreans just can't made a bad movie. Although they are specialist in crime-thrillers even a romantic drama/comedy (we must mention excellent My Sassy Girl from 2001.) is a genre in which they have top titles. A Moment to Remember is a real tearjerker and must see of the genre.

Romantične drame su zasigurno jedan od žanrova sa najvećom količinom loših predstavnika, ali s vremenom na vrijeme, kao i kod većine stvari, dođe neka iznimka.

A Moment to Remember je višeslojna priča sa stereotipnim protagonistima, bogatoj djevojci, Su-jin,  i siromašnom građevinskom radniku, Cheol-su, koji igrom slučaja radi za njenog oca. No, sve osim likova je daleko od stereotipa. Priča se, iako teče kronološki, može podijeliti u nekoliko dijelova.

Na početku upoznajemo Su-jin i to u trenutku njenog najtežeg emocionalnog stanja nakon što ju je njen tadađnji ljubavnik napustio. Tada prvo naleti na Cheol-sua u dućanu, a nedugo kasnije pri posjetu gradilištu koje njen otac vodi saznaje da Cheol-su tamo radi. Tada upoznajemo i njega i to kao poprilično vulgarnog, ali poštenog i principijelnog građevinskog radnika koji teži tome da postane arhitekt. Igrom slučaja se dvojac još jednom sretne i polako počinje njihov sve prisniji odnos. Unatoč početnom Cheol-suovom skepticizmu ubrzo kreću u zajednički život i brak. Tu otprilike završava prvi dio filma, koji se malo razlikuje od hrpe ostalih romantičnih drama i počinje drugi dio kojeg je najlakše opisati kao emocionalni vrtuljak.

Nakon kratkog, naizgled idiličnog braka Su-jin saznaje da boluje od Alzheimera. Uvod u tu činjenicu je bio dugačak s obzirom da se kroz cijeli film naglašavala njena zaboravljivost. Tada počinje dio filma koji njegovu priču razlikuje od ostalih.

 Woo-sung Jung i Ye-jin Son briljiraju u glavnim ulogama, a za to je zasigurno zaslužna i to što su im likovi duboko razrađeni. John H. Lee, koji je nešto slabije poznati novovalni korejski filmaš, je odradio maestralan posao. Zamjerke idu na korištenje kamere u nekim scenama te glazbu koja je izvrsna, ali nekad pretjerano korištena. Očit je pokušaj da se prilikom gotovo svake jače emocije glavnih likova isti dočaraju i glazbenom podlogom, ali nekim scenama jednostavno treba manje ili nimalo glazbe kao što i od viška nekad stvarno glava boli.

Priča je jedna od onih koja gotovo svakog priljubi uz ekran, pa makar bio i najveći mrzitelj romantike. Nije do krajnosti originalna, ali je do krajnosti razrađena i jednostavno ostaje u sječanju. Sporedni likovi su od reda stereotipni, ali savršeno ukonponirani kao i humoristične sekvence.

Koreanci jednostavno čega god se prime odrade fenomenalno, pa eto čak i romantičnih drama/komedija (tu se naravno mora spomenuti i izvrsni My Sassy Girl iz 2001.).ili je možda stvar u tome što se ne bave s tematikom koju ne mogu izvrsno obraditi.