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All
For Love |
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Hwang Jung-Min and Uhm Jung-Hwa
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AKA: |
The
Most Beautiful Week in My Life |
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AKA: |
My
Lovely Week |
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Year: |
2005 |
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Director: |
Min
Kyu-Dong |
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Producer: |
Yoon
Je-Kyun |
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Writer: |
Min
Kyu-Dong |
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Cast: |
Uhm
Jung-Hwa, Hwang Jung-Min, Yim Chang-Jung, Kim Su-Ro,
Kim Tae-Hyun, Joo Hyun, Cheon Ho-Jin, Yoon Jin-Seo,
Jung Kyung-Ho, Ha Ji-Won (cameo), Ryoo Seung-Su (cameo),
Jo Hi-Bong (cameo) |
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The
Skinny: |
The co-director of Memento Mori serves up a sampler
platter of Korean melodrama in this enjoyable, if overly
ambitious multi-story film. Likeable performances elevate
this picture beyond its overtly commercial "mix-and-match"
approach to filmmaking. And even better, it's got a
decent sense of humor about itself and the genre. |
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Review by
Calvin
McMillin: |
From sexy singles on the
lookout for love to a struggling married couple trying
to keep it all together - and just everything in-between - All For Love depicts a week in the life of
a dozen or so Korean citizens dealing with serious matters
of the heart. Director Min Kyu-Dong, co-helmer of the
popular horror hit Memento Mori, presents the
audience with a number of beleaguered characters thrust
into challenging situations, and interweaves it all
in what amounts to a gigantic K-Drama super sampler.
In no particular order,
All for Love's multi-story narrative goes something
like this: Chang-Hu (Yim Chang-Jung) finds himself on
the verge of poverty, as he struggles to make ends meet
while keeping his financial difficulties a secret from
his dutiful, cheery wife Seon-Ae (Seo Yung-Hi). Chang
Hu is being hassled by Sung Won (Kim Su-Ro), an embittered
ex-basketball player-turned-debt collector, who is surprised
to learn that he's got a six-year-old daughter (the
adorable Kim Yu-Jung), who just so happens to be suffering
from a life-threatening medical condition. While in
the hospital, she's often visited by her "boyfriend,"
a young boy who turns out to be the son of a sassy divorcee
named Yu-Jung (Uhm Jung-Hwa, from Singles). While
appearing on a television show, the ballsy doctor finds
herself butting heads with Detective Nah (Hwang Jung-Min,
from You Are My Sunshine), a tough-talking, Rambo-loving
cop whose experience with the ladies is practically
nil. Of course, the bickering twosome soon find they
may like each other more than they think.
But that's only half
the cast. Yu-Jung's ex-husband is shown to be an uptight
music industry big shot named Jo (Chun Ho-Jin), who
has to confront his gay past head-on when he hires a
male housekeeper (Kim Tae-Hyun). The film's other two
stories include one about nun-in-training Su Gyeong
(Yoon Jin Seo) who falls for a fading pop star named
Jeong Hun (Jung Kyung-Ho), and another tale about an
elderly theater owner (Ju Hyun) who takes a shine to
the vivacious, but aging actress (Oh Mi-Hi), who runs
a coffee shop located on his property.
As the film proceeds,
the narrative strands cross as the events of each story
begin to have consequences for the other characters,
all of whom are, in their own way, trying to find happiness
in an increasingly uncertain world. Loneliness, unemployment,
strained family relations, and impending death are just
a few of the not-so-pleasant themes that resonate throughout
many of the tales spun in All For Love. However,
in contrast to the multiple downer endings of the appropriately
titled Sad Movie, this similarly-constructed
film mixes the sweet with the sour, a move sure to satisfy
its audience's widely divergent tastes. But as bittersweet
as the film can be at times, it still maintains a healthy
sense of humor throughout, even poking fun at the genre
itself from time to time.
Also known by its Korean
title of The Most Beautiful Week in My Life,
the film will probably be most appreciated by K-drama
fanatics with short attention spans, since the film
bops from story-to-story, never allowing the audience
to get too bogged down in one plot line for too long.
In fashioning what amounts to a "greatest hits" package
of melodramatic situations, the filmmakers behind All
For Love implement a fairly successful technique,
albeit one that proves to be somewhat of a double edged
sword. In one respect, a multi-part, interwoven narrative
pretty much allows the filmmakers to cover all the bases
in terms of demographics. Bored with a certain story?
No problem. In minutes, you'll be whisked off to another
one, featuring actors or situations that you'll be sure
to identify with. Even though the film does meld together
as a cohesive whole, the multitude of stories comes
at the expense of character development, a factor which
makes the film feel woefully underdeveloped at times.
At over two hours in length, it's by no means a gargantuan
epic, but the sheer number of characters, not to mention
the numerous plotlines that need to be tied up by story's
end, makes the film feels longer than it actually is.
Less characters would have made for a sharper, more
substantial movie, but as is, it's a delightful film
all the same.
But there is strength
in numbers, too. The all-star cast assembled for All
for Love is by far its best attribute. The standouts
would have to be the actors who get top billing, Uhm
Jung-Hwa and Hwang Jung-Min. Although each character
in the film gets a fair shake, these two seem to take
center stage as the bickering would-be lovers, and their
performances seem to crackle with the most energy of
all the actors involved. Detailing the attributes of
each performance would probably spoil half the fun of
watching the film, but there is one other actor who
deserves a mention here. Even in a film adorned with
a bevy of attractive female co-stars, Oh Mi-Hi nearly
steals the show with her vibrant debut as a woman with
big dreams, and an even bigger heart.
While it probably has too many
characters and storylines for its own good, All For
Love is an entertaining film that, despite its length,
never seems to wear out its welcome. Although the situations
themselves (the terminal illness angle, for one) could
be considered highly cliché, the film is less a rote
exercise in formulaic conventions, and instead comes
across as a successful attempt to give a diverse cast
of characters a suitably "cinematic" chance to interact
just to see how the sparks fly. If All For Love
is melodramatic fluff, well, it's certainly one of the
better kinds. (Calvin McMillin, 2006) |
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Availability: |
DVD (Korea)
Region 3 NTSC
CJ Entertainment
DTS 2-Disc Edition
16 x 9 Anamorphic Widescreen
Korean Language Track
Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS
Removable English and Korean Subtitles
Various Extras |
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