Seoul. The 12-year olds Na Young and Hae Sung develop a crush on each other, but Na Young's family just then decides to emigrate to Toronto. Na Young adopts a new Canadian name: Nora. 12 years later, Nora, now living as a writer in New York City, resumes contact with Hae via Facebook, and they have video calls, as he is still in Seoul. However, Nora asks for a pause, and as she meets a fellow writer, Arthur, at a writing course, she forgets about Hae. Nora marries Arthur and secures herself a Green Card. 12 years later, Hae travels to New York, and Nora meets him in person, with consent from Arthur. Hae and Nora talk about what could have been, and he departs.
Loosely based on her own experience, Celine Song's feature length debut film is a surprisingly touching, emotional, delicate and restrained romantic drama about unrequited love and a couple that is already in a relationship with someone else, in the vein of "Brief Encounter" and "In the Mood for Love". It's a minimalist story, scarce and poor with content, and thus overall overstretched—in a way, it would have been more suited for a short film than a feature. The concept is thin and underwritten, almost banal, but one simply has to admire its pure dedication to two soulmates, far away from any cynicism or nihilism in the time it was made. It's a rare film that believes solely in its own idealistic concept of humanity, without any gimmicks, and the leading actress Greta Lee is excellent as Nora. There is a fantastic little comfy sequence around 70 minutes into the film, where Arthur and his wife Nora are lying in bed, as he talks about how unusual the situation is that her childhood sweetheart is coming to visit her in New York ("I was just thinking about what a good story this is". - "The story of Hae Sung and me?" - "Yeah. I just can't compete". - "What do you mean?" - "Childhood sweethearts who reconnect 20 years later only to realize they were meant for each other". - "We're not meant for each other". - "I know. In the story, I would be the evil white American husband standing in the way of destiny"). Since they are both writers, there is something fascinating in the literate and mature way they talk—Arthur knows what is going on, but he is simply too educated to be jealous, and instead shows understanding. Juggling with Korean immigrants in the US, and the upheaval it causes in their relationships, Song created a half-fascinating film—it lacks something, and yet, as it is, it also has something that its missing ingredients lack themselves: humanism.
Grade:++
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