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Review by
Calvin
McMillin: |
Melodrama
may be the bread-and-butter genre in Korean cinema,
but Park Jin-Pyo's You Are My Sunshine is anything
but typical in this respect. Films and television
dramas that abound in emotional excess are often critically
derided, yet this 2005 film was nominated for Best
Picture and several other honors at the 26th Blue
Dragon Awards and even earned the director and the
film's lead actor top prizes in their individual categories.
On paper, You Are My Sunshine certainly seems
to share most of the ingredients of a conventional
melodrama, so what could possibly make it so special?
The film centers on
Seok-Joong (Hwang Jung-Min), an unmarried farmer who's
pushing forty and looking to finally settle down.
Although he signs up for a deal that would have gotten
him a bride from the Philippines, Seok-Joong doesn't
follow through on the scheme, deciding instead to
wait around for Ms. Right to show up. And sure enough,
show up she does, as Seok-Joong meets her in the form
of Eun-Ha (Jeon Do-Yeon), a pretty waitress at a local
coffee shop. However, Eun Ha isn't just any waitress;
it turns out she provides more services than just
coffee to her happy customers. Really, whoever heard
of home delivery for coffee? Even Starbucks hasn't
jumped on that idea yet.
But her illicit profession
means little to Seok-Joong; he's smitten at first
sight by Eun-Ha and begins giving her roses and a
bottle or two of fresh milk everyday to show his affection.
Eun Ha is half-amused, half-annoyed at the man's awkward,
childlike way of wooing her, but as the story develops,
she begins to see something in Seok-Joong. It's something
she'd lost hope in seeing in any man, but it's there,
and as she soon finds, it's something worth pursuing.
And so, for the first
sixty minutes of its running time, You Are My Sunshine
delivers a genuinely funny, intensely likeable romantic
comedy as an unconventional romance begins to take
shape and the unlikely couple work to overcome the
objections of Seok-Joong's meddling mother, his peers,
and society in general. If director Park Jin-Pyo had
chosen to add twenty more minutes to this section
of the film, he would have made a solid, if somewhat
unremarkable crowdpleaser. But that is clearly not
what director Park had in mind, since there's still
another half of the story to tell. And what a second
half!
Exactly one hour into
the film, Eun-Ha receives a phone call form a figure
in her past that immediately sets off a shocking (and
graphic) chain of events. To put it simply: IT ALL
GOES TO HELL. While this dramatic switch will seem
incongruous with the tone of all that came before,
the film has played fair with the viewer, slowly setting
things up the entire time. Although the film's trailer
and accompanying press materials spoil the film's
major plot point, this review will try to be somewhat
evasive about specifics. What will be revealed here,
however, is that You Are My Sunshine becomes,
among other things, a terminal illness tearjerker,
yet remarkably, it isn't carried out in an exploitive
"disease-of-the-week" sort of way as has
been seen in other, lesser melodramas.
Are emotions running
on high throughout the latter half of the film? You
bet. And while this reviewer still finds a lot of
that kind of stuff unseemly, if not ridiculous in
any context, You Are My Sunshine minimizes
that criticism by making sure that the world depicted
in the film is one that is steeped as deeply as possible
in reality. Unlike the problems introduced in other
melodramas that feel contrived, if not downright fake,
You Are My Sunshine proves successful in convincing
the audience that these issues are the real conditions
under which the film's characters must act and react.
Also, it doesn't hurt that the movie's first half
and the actors' performances within it go a long way
in hooking the viewer and fostering a sense of good
will towards the characters. Sure, the film's dramatic
turn feels like a huge suckerpunch considering its
earlier, happier tone, but co-stars Hwang Jung-Min
and Jeon Do-Yeon help the film make its transition
to all-out melodrama. In addition, Na Moon-Hee (from
My Lovely Sam-Soon) adds a welcome extra dimension
to her role as Seok-Joong's mother, a performance
which could easily have been yet another one-note
portrayal of a disapproving matriarch we've seen time
and again in these types of stories.
Ultimately, You Are
My Sunshine may indeed have much in common with
the numerous melodramas that populate the market.
But what separates this film from the pack is that
it never feels like it's yet another "by-the-numbers"
take on a well-worn genre. Although this reviewer
has never cried nor wishes to in response to any Korean
melodrama, I can say that it's not hard to see how
You Are My Sunshine could have that affect
on audiences. Yes, it tugs on the heartstrings, but
for the most part, the film earns it, delivering a
genuinely compelling storyline that's hard to pass
up. (Calvin McMillin, 2006)
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