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Covering things Korean in London and beyond since 2006

Festival film Review: Lost in Love (사랑을 놓치다)

Lost in love

Dir: Chu Chang-min 2006. Stars: Sol Kyung-gu
Thu 25 May 2006, 8:50pm, Prince Charles Cinema

“Dull, dull, dull” is how I thought this review would read as I watched the first half of this film last night. It got better, but not much. This is a story about a non-relationship. There were some great observations about emotional inarticulacy, such as the awkward silence, not knowing what to say, the morning after.

There was a poignant line spoken by the lead male (Sol Kyung-gu): “How can this end? It never really started.” I’m sure that someone is going to tell me that all this stuff about being unable to express one’s feelings properly is all to do with han. And, by coincidence, the lead male character’s family name is Han. But I say what the characters really need is a good slap in the face and to be told to pull themselves together and get on with it. And Han’s father agrees with me: in the only scene we meet him, he comes to visit his son, cursing himself for bringing a Red Cross food parcel containing mother’s kimchi. And despairing of his son’s general uselessness with women he’s trying to arrange a marriage for him.

There was a moment when part of my brain knew I should be crying (yes, I do sometimes cry during a good weepy Korean melodrama), and I could feel some surplus water dutifully building up ready to trickle down the tear-duct to my eye. But instead of a tear came a snort of exasperation.

Choo Chang-min (추창민) Lost in Love (사랑을 놓치다, 2006) score-2score-2score-1score-0score-0

Links:

  • imdb entry on Lost in Love

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