Thursday, July 14, 2011

He Was Cool (Korean Movie 2004)

Cast:
Jung Da Bin (born 1980 – died 2007) as Han Ye-Won
Song Seung Hun (born 1976) as Ji Eun-Sung
Lee Ki-Woo (born 1981) as Kim Han-Sung

The film is based on a novel written by Guiyeoni. The story is about a cheerful high school student named Han Ye-Won. She is a sweet, clumsy and warm girl. On the other side, there is Ji Eun-Sung, a student from vocational school and well-known as a bully. He is hot tempered and rude but deep inside he is longing to be loved.

One day, clumsily, Ye-Won leaves a message on her school website to reply to En-Sung’s impolite message. She is shocked when someone calls her mobile and threatens her. Gradually, her best friend, Lee Kyung-Won, tells her who Eun-Sung is. He sends Ye-Won a message on her mobile: He will wait for her in front of the main gate. She is so scared that she and Kyung-Won decide to jump over the school wall. Unfortunately, the moment Ye-Won jumps, Eun-Sung is standing exactly at the other side of the wall. She falls on him and their lips meet accidentally. Raising his voice, Eun-Sung asks her to take responsibility; she is astonished. His friend explains that Eun-Sung has never even held hands with a girl. Since she is the first girl who kissed him, as consequence, she must marry him.

The story continues very fast. At the beginning, Ye-won does not have any feelings for Eun-Sung. She even rejects his invitation to come to his birthday party. Unknowingly, Eun-Sung has fallen in love with her; but he is not the kind of guy who knows how to express his inner feelings. He is jealous when Ye-Won is approached by other guys but he does not know how to be with someone he loves.

Although he is rude and bad-tempered, Eun-Sung always pardon Ye-Won’s faults and clumsiness. One thing he couldn't bear was when he found out that Ye-Won went out with Kim Han-Sung, his senior and the one he hates a lot. The broken-hearted Eun-Sung decides to leave Korea following his mother to the USA.

A year later Ye-Won is seen with Han-Sung, discussing if she is scared for her SATs. It seems to be that they are in a relationship at this point. During her SAT, the hearing portion of the exam brings up a quote from Romeo and Juliet which bring Ye-Won back to the memory of her and Eun-Sung in the park in front of the telephone booth where, no matter what, they would re-unite at the first snowfall. At this point Ye-Won stops what she is doing and runs to the park. She waits there as the scene rolls back to the fantasy she had a year ago and she starts to cry as Eun-Sung is not there. As she turns around, a rabbit is hopping towards her, the same rabbit she gave to Eun-Sung. She looks up and Eun-Sung is there. She yells at him saying "You left without saying goodbye. What made you come back?" And Eun-Sung replied “True love requires no words.”

The film ends with Eun Sung's childhood memory of some opening event of an elementary school where the only kid that would kiss Eun-Sung was Ye-Won. An interesting aspect to this is that earlier on in the film, Ye-won uses Eun-Sung's cellphone to make a mini-video of her bedroom. There she captures footage of an old photo from when she was little, showing her and a friend. It turns out that this friend is actually the little Eun-Sung, hinting at the connection between the two. When Eun-Sung watches the video on his cell towards the end of the film, he is surprised to see himself and remembers that Ye-Won was THAT little girl.

Review
Why does Eun-Sung hate being touch by others?

It is because his father died of AIDS when he was in elementary school. All the kids stayed away from him for fear of getting AIDS. So, when Ye-Won accidentally kissed him, he felt violated thus wanting Ye-Won to take responsibility.

Why does Eun-Sung hates Han-Sung?

Well, I can’t really answer that because part 10 from Youtube is cancelled. But, it has something to do with the death of their friend, Hae-bin. I think Eun-Sung blamed Han-Sung for not allowing him to save Hae-bin.

What did I learnt from this movie?
Apart from being a romantic comedy movie, it also taught us about the consequences of AIDS and how it affects the people around us. I mean, a parent should truly understand AIDS than just simply telling their kids to stay away from anyone that is associated with it. Then again, as a parent, I might do the same thing. It’s not because I don’t understand AIDS, but, because it’s better to be save than sorry.

 What do I like about this movie?

Almost all the cast in this movie are in their mid-twenties at the time the movie being recorded. The fight scene is well organized and it surprised me. The fight scenes really show the coolness of Eun-Sung. What woman is not attracted to bad-cool guy?! The wardrobe of Eun-Sung also shows his coolness. Overall, this movie IS cool.

The lead?
Jung Da Bin, committed suicide in 2007. She was only 27 when she died. I like her after watching My 19 Years Old Sister-in-Law (16 episodes). Maybe I should watch that drama again.

Song Seung-heon needs no introduction for you guys who have watched Autumn in My Heart, Summer Scent, East of Eden and the latest My Princess. He also co-starred in the movie So Close alongside with Shu Qi and Zhao Wei. I didn’t watch Ghost: In Your Arms Again though because it is a remake of the widely famous movie Ghost.

Source
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/He_Was_Cool
Photos are taken from various site using Google Image.

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