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Memorable, crazy movie

Let's be realistic.

Best movie of this year hands down!

Absolutely the worst movie.

Spawning a Hollywood remake 6 years later, THE LAKE HOUSE (2006), a star vehicle for Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock, IL MARE is an emblem of the "pure romance" sub-genre from Eastern Asia, typically in Japan and South Korea around millennium, aiming to the incorrigible romantics, whereas love transmits in its most unpolluted form between two beautiful-looking youngsters, a form eclipses puppy love among adolescents, and imbues a more substantial connection of limerence between two people. In this case, what makes IL MARE a critical standout is its inventive concept to present "time" itself as an unlikely obstacle between two lonely souls Sung-hyun (Lee) and Eun-ju (Jun).The fantasy premise is that, through a magical mailbox, Sung-hyun, a young architect in 1997, receives a letter from Eun-jun from 1999, who has just left the beach house, aka, Il Mare, which Sung-hyun stays now, and moved into a new apartment in town. The house is a gift from Sung- hyun's estranged father, and he is its first occupant, so clearly, he receives Eun-jun's letter from a nearer future, 2 years later exactly speaking.This uncanny communication enlivens both Sung-hyun and Eun-ju's lonesome existences, they exchange their stories, both have experienced a recent breakup, with some not-so-serious time- altering happenstances (e.g. collect a lost Walkman in 1998 and send it back to 2000) to bring about their mutual affections. Guaranteed a slow pace with an intrusive deploy of soft-focus aesthetic (if not a bit televisionary) to fabricate a dreamlike co-existence of how perfect they are made for each other, experience their pastimes in two paralleled universes, separately but vicariously accompanied by each other, Lee Hyun-seung's fairy-tale regrettably slumps into a cloying one-trick pony after the midstream, when the novelty runs dry, and some default plot-holes emerge.One might wonder, since Sung-hyun can regularly meet an unwitting Eun-ju in 1998, why he chooses not to get to know her in person, using the Walkman as a silence-breaker for instance. No, he would rather communicate with a future version of her and laments in his time-line, that the present version only reckons him like a stranger, but in fact, he is a total stranger to her, what does he expect? A more nagging resistance is that, it never occurs to Eun-ju that she should look for Sung-hyun in 2000, not until the moment arrives solely for the convenience of a major plot device, which is narrowly plausible but too conniving to consummate a satisfactory crescendo.The two leads are not given too much to act since the narrations of their letters take a big chunk of the story, and most of time, they are acting against themselves under a veneer of affected pretty- people-entrapped-in-the-loneliness narcissism with schmaltzy songs in the background, although Jun Ji-hyuan exhibits a tinge of sophistication at a rather young age of 18, augurs her soon-to-be- acquired mega-star popularity not just in her motherland.

In a nutshell, A girl falls in love with a guy who is two years in her past. Romance and Time Travel has been around for a long time. Back to the Future is a romance. So is Chris Marker's Le Jetee (and as a consequence, 12 Monkeys) and Somewhere in Time. There are many plot devices to separate lovers and one of the most cruel (hence most romantic) is using implacable Time. So the time travel device is no longer a De Lorean or playing mental tricks on oneself but rather it's now a mailbox. I think more interesting are some directing effects (when the camera swings around the mailbox and the lovers seem like they are in the same space), some good shots of the skies and the deliberate, anti-MTV pacing of the movie. Lake House, the remake, is actually decent. It's fairly restrained and the house in the remake is prettier. It is not, however, that revolutionary, and therefore suffers in comparison with this remake. Lake House works because of the story, which is virtually the same here. Also, putting in two big name stars is distracting from a simple, gossamer story. Therefore, I have fonder memories of this Korean original.

I haven't seen The Lake House with Sandra Bullock and Keanu reeves, but I have seen it. Il Mare is the Korean film that predates it by six years and is the same story. Like many great Asian films, another has been remade in America.Jung-Jae Lee (Typhoon) plays a budding architect estranged from his father and he moves into a house that his father designed and built. He finds a letter in the mailbox presumably from another person who has lived in the house. But, it is new and he is the first person there! Gianna Jun (an incredible beauty!) is the woman who rents the house two years later and is corresponding with the first owner through a magical mailbox.It is a sweet and tender story with absolutely brilliant cinematography and hauntingly beautiful music. And, of course, it has the cutest dog you can imagine named Cola, who binds the two together.A Sci-Fi ending to a sweet romance.

Having accepted the premise of two people living in different times and communicating with each other, there are still serious problems regarding the handling of this premise. Besides this, the script is not void of consistency problems. The remade movie with Reeves and Bullock has a far superior script and therefor is a better and more convincing piece of art work. The subject matters Il Mare is dealing with are indeed quite romantic. But this is true for a lot of mediocre TV-work, which is on par with European or American standards. To be a really good movie, there must, in my opinion, be no consistency problems. I can love a movie, and this does not necessarily make it a good movie. I do not like Il Mare, but I kind of love The Lake House due to the subject, the production values AND the very well done script.