Sisyphus’ Sigma: A Look into Mental Illness
Dance of The Dragon
Country: South Korea Year: 2008 Genre: Drama, Music
Gwon Tae San (Jang Hyuk) finally summons the courage to pursue his dream of becoming a dancer after years of letting himself be put down by his father’s selfish concern for his future. When Tae San crosses the point of no return, he stakes everything on achieving his dreams in dancing and in love.
The film is like a long music video with rich and evoking background music.
Shaolin Kung Fu already looks like dancing. So with the atmosphere and the music of the film, even Shaolin is as elegant and aesthetic as the other ballroom dances done by Jang Hyuk.
Hero playing during the breathtaking and arresting flamenco dance is something I’ve never seen before. Jang Hyuk is one actor I would never have imagined as a killer dancer, but his acting here is one of his best. To see him absorbed and taken by the music and the dance is a life experience. The flashback scenes with Yeo Jin Goo as the young Tae San are other great elements of the film.
South of The Border
Country: South Korea Year: 2006 Genre: Drama, Melodrama, Romance
I hate politics and I never watch, read or talk about it. So whenever I watch something that has to do with the aftermath of what the rotten politicians decide over a cup of wine, I lose my mind.
The film is about the Koreas, dammit! Sun Ho (the Ultimate Cha Seung Won) is a North Korean horn player who’s settled with his family and madly in love with Yeon Hwa (Jo Yi Jin). Sun Ho's family gets caught for communicating with their relatives in the South and cannot but defect to save their lives. Sun Ho leaves Yeon Hwa on the promise of sending someone to fetch her and her family. After settling in the South, Sun Ho gives up the horn and throws himself into work with only Yeon Hwa in mind. But life is not as simple or merciful as that.
If love was too strong to break on its own, life makes sure to do the task. Melo Cha Seung Won is a new experience. That overwhelming pain in his eyes and that heavy suffering in his voice are priceless.
The Harmonium in My Memory
Country: South Korea Year: 1999 Genre: Music, Life, School, Melodrama
A humane and touching story of the nostalgia of a 17-year-old woman for her first love story with her teacher.
The teacher is Lee Byung Hun acting Kang Su Ha. He’s a fresh graduate of 21 and he’s assigned to a rural area. He’s clumsy and inexperienced. As he falls for his fellow teacher Yang Eun-Hee (Lee Min Yeon), his student Hong-Yeon (Jeon Do Yeon) develops a huge crush on him. Growing into a woman, Hong-Yeon struggles between the amount of feelings she has and her inability to articulate them, between her jealousy and her wish to be treated as a woman and between what the teacher is and what her life and circumstances are.
The film is a classic that’s worth every minute. Be it for Hong-Yeon’s journey in love and growing up or for Su Ha’s epiphany as a teacher. Be it for the classical music or the period of the 1960s. All of us would relate: first love, first job and first heartbreak.
