It's been quite a while since I've done a movie review on my personal blog, but since this review is gonna be based mainly on concepts and my feelings towards the overall ideas in the movie I'm writing it on my regular blog.

As a slight disclaimer, I have a place in my heard for all movies that have nice and moving concepts although I also like a thrilling action no-brainer or cute, fluffy romcom for my usual casual viewings, but I also enjoy movies like The King and the Clown or 200 Pounds of Beauty (I don't find it to be a romcom... I FIND IT SO DEPRESSING... WHY THE FREAK IS IT LISTED AS A ROMCOM?)

First of all I have to praise Uhm Tae Woong for being not so utterly distasteful in this movie, in every single work I've seen him in ever since Delightful Girl Choon-hyang I've found him to be an actor I utterly dislike and I don't know if it's necessarily based off skill... (although I do find his acting to be awkward... lol). Although I find he doesn't fit his role well in this movie (frankly I don't find him to be cut out for romance, his expressions are limited to deadpan face and to deadpan face + a little bit of being insulted. Not romance material (unless we are looking for Winter Sonata or Stairway to Heaven weepy material). But he acted slightly better in this film and actually played his character well. (although it's still weird... he's so old looking and Han Ga In is so young looking.... OTL.)

SECONDLY. I'm really glad for Suzy's performance, she really acted well in this movie. She's improved a lot since Dream High and now I can rest easy leaving the currently airing Hong Sister drama, Big, in her hands. Lee Je Hoon was also a pleasure to watch although Uhm Tae Woong and Han Ga In (as always) was good to watch, but the teenage (can't really call them child actors...) story was far more interesting. It had more substance and it felt like it filled up the gaps in the adult story.

Overall thoughts on the movie's composition... I really liked the way the past and the future was put together, it was flawless. With a lot of movies that abuse flashbacks, it gets really draggy and repetitive and sometimes it doesn't connect well and feels forced, Introduction to Architecture really didn't have that problem though. Anyway for enjoyability/quality I'd give it a

8.5/10

Reasons... This is REALLY a quality film, and the 8.5 is really just personal bias based. This wasn't a "sad" film persay actually, but it made me depressed as hell... so yeah. I really hate sad films. xD So yup. I don't enjoy being sad...

ANYWAY. Onto the actual conceptual stuff I wanted to talk about for this film!

So the actual premise of the film is that it talks about a story about first loves and the childhood and adult sides of a love story. It'll be too confusing using the cast's real names in reference to their character's so for once I'll actually refer to their in-movie names. (Seoyeon and Seungmin).

35-year-old architect Seung-Min (Uhm Tae-Woong) receives a visit at his office from a woman. Seung-Min doesn't recognize the woman at first, but then realizes the woman is Seo-Yeon (Han Ga-In). Seo-Yeon is his first love, but he hasn't seen her since his freshman year in college. Seo-Yeon now has a request. She wants to hire Seung-Min to rebuild her home on Jeju Island.

15 years ago, Seung-Min (Lee Je-Hoon) is a naive young man beginning his architecture studies in college. He first meets Seo-Yeon (Bae Suzy) in his Architecture 101 class. As they work on a class project together, Seung-Min and Seo-Yeon begin to fall in love.

Back to the present day, Seung-Min is hesitant to take Seo-Yeon's job offer. Seo-Yeon persists and even goes to his boss with her wish. Seung-Min now has no choice, but to take on Seo-Yeon's home project. Old memories of love and heartbreak will soon resurface, as they find themselves at different junctions in their lives ...

(credit: Hancinema)


The movie ends up actually being sweet and heartwarming in that it shows that people can still love each other for a lifetime even if you don't end up being together. That's the weird thing about first loves, you really don't forget them even if you find someone else you love a lot. That's one of the concepts this film really accurately depicts. You see Seoyeon trying to lie and telling Seungmin she's living happily and rich but the whole time she still remembers him in her heart. She goes so far to tell the half truth that she's married. This shows that she's unwilling to be the one that flips the bottom card. Cause once you flip it and everything's revealed, there's no room for discussion or bargaining, this is something that I find a lot of people doing in contexts like this. So I found the interactions to be very realistic.

The sad thing about this movie is that they might have ended up happy and together (if their love was only so shallow why do they both still remember each other and their memories so deeply as their first loves?). If not for Seungmin being dumb and misunderstanding... Seoyeon and him might've ended up together.

The particularly heartbreaking scene for me was when Seoyeon waits for him at the house during the first snow, and Seungmin never shows up, but then later you find that he went to the house at a later time (retrieving the CD + CD player) and if he had just gotten there sooner and seen that Seoyeon remembered the promise (obviously knowing the significance) he woulda just gotten through it and they could've been together.

Anyway (it's 3:10 am now and I'm really tired so I'm cutting this rather short), the thing about first loves that this movie captures the best are the would've, could've, should'ves; the movie is truly bittersweet and although it kinda moves slowly (so it might not be for the not sentimental hearted) it really warms up to you. I really think Lee Je Hoon was what nailed it for me, his character was very relatable (although very dumb) and as he falls head-over-heels in love for Suzy every drop back into reality was heartbreaking to watch.

This really was a lovely movie, and I recommend it for anyone to watch. It really brings feelings of nostalgia. I teared up a lot of times, and I PERSONALLY would think it'd be a good movie to force your boyfriend to watch with you. :) So enjoy!



Rei

Labels: Architecture 101, Movie