My Name is Kim Sam Soon, 7.5
My Name is Kim Sam-soon (aka My Lovely Kim Sam Soon). Korean Drama (MBC 2005).
(Sam-soon, Hee-jin, Henry, Jin-heon. Picture from MBC website.)
Stars:
Kim Sun-ah..................................Kim Sam-soon, pastry chef
Hyun Bin.......................................Hyun Jin-heon, restaurant manager and son of wealthy Hotel CEO
Jung Ryu-won..............................Yu Hee-jin, woman who broke Kyun Jin Heon's heart and went to the United States
Daniel Henney..............................Dr. Henry Kim, Korean adoptee searching for lost heritage and true love
Synopsis:
The troubles are countless for pastry chef Kim Sam-soon, aged 29 and still unmarried. She doesn't have a job (though she makes a mean mousse), only a name that she hates (the equivalent of Bertha or Helga, perhaps, but with even less association to feminity). She can't lose weight and is dumped by her boyfriend in a fancy hotel on New Year's Eve after she spies him going in with another woman. Things are so rough that when she seeks solace in an empty bathroom stall, she is rudely disturbed from her bawling session by an insistent knocking accompanied by a man's voice asking her what she's doing in the men's room. The handsome young fellow, although she doesn't know it yet, is Hyun Jin-heon, 27-year-old manager of a romantic, dimly-lit little restaurant desperately in need of a pastry chef. Fate, kind fate, intervenes on Kim Sam-soon's behalf, and she soon finds a friendly community among Jin-heon's restaurant staff. Her relationship with Hyun Jin-heon is a little rockier, due to the awkward circumstances of their meeting, and the tension is exacerbated by his request that she pretend to be his girlfriend in order to appease his domineering hotel CEO of a mother. Sam-soon agrees, but on two conditions. 1) He must call her Kim Hee-jin (the sound of the name stuns him into painful recollections); and 2) he will compensate her financially, so that the house she lives in with her mother and divorced older sister won't be lost.
The two tentatively begin to like each other, but everything is thrown into turmoil when Yu Hee-jin, Hyun Jin-heon's ex-girlfriend, reenters the scene. The malnourished beauty left him suddenly three years ago when she flew to the States, ostensibly to study abroad; she returns wanting to patch things up but is shocked to find that her old flame is apparently in another relationship. Hyun Jin Heon is equally surprised to find that Hee Jin has handsome, half-Korean Henry Kim in tow, though not as surprised as he will be when he discovers Handsome Henry's vocation and stated purpose in Korea. Drama unfolds upon drama as new loves are sorely tested and old feelings reemerge from long-hidden depths of the heart.
Drama Reduction: Will Kim Sam-soon ever find love, or is she doomed to live out life as a slightly overweight (though she isn't really) spinster? Can Hyun Jin-heon love Kim Sam-soon for the awkward individual she is, or will he pine forever for his first love/ be put off by Sam-soon's inelegant ways? What will be the first words be of Hyun Jin-heon's little niece, who hasn't spoken since the fatal car accident that killed her parents?
Opinion: Traffics in several standard soap opera plot developments, but manages to create complex and endearing characters nonetheless. Some bad (though earnest) acting on the part of our American export, but he's good looking enough that women are swooning anyway.
Verdict: 7.5/10.0 Generally good viewing, though I hold an intense dislike for the developments of the last episode.
The Widow of St. Pierre, 6.5
The Widow of St. Pierre (2001). French movie with English subtitles. 1 hour and 48 minutes, rated R.
Stars Juliette Binoche as Pauline, ("Madame La"), Daniel Auteuil as her husband, Jean (The Captain), and Emir Kusturica as Ariel Neel Auguste (Neel).
Summary: Neel and a friend committed a grisly murder one night on the little island of St. Pierre while completely drunk. Sentenced to die by guillotine, he is put under the care of the captain of the military until a guillotine (nicknamed "The Widow") can be sent over from the mainland and an executioner can be found. The captain's radiant and good-hearted wife asks for permission to have Neel help her with gardening and to keep her company on her trips to the fishing villages in return for better food and freedom to walk around in the courtyard. With hard work and an act of heroism, Neel wins the respect and love of the villagers, who no longer wish him to be executed. This change of the popular heart strikes an uncomfortable tone in the hearts of the governor and his cronies, who are deeply unhappy with the way the captain and his wife have chosen to treat the prisoner, and they begin going to greater lengths to make sure that the various threats to their authority are appropriately dealt with.
Opinion: An atmospheric film that felt longer than it was,
The Widow of St. Pierre is romantic in style, engaging from moment to moment, and well-acted on the part of each character, but ultimately doesn't find the unity of narration and purpose that causes movies to resonate. Giving more time to explaining underlying motivations and elucidating personal histories would have been helpful in filling out characters.
Verdict: 6.5
hana and alice, 6.0
hana & alice (2004), 135 minutes. Japanese movie. Directed by Shunji Iwai.
stars Anne Suzuki as Hana and Yu Aoi as Alice (Arisugawa), as well as Tomohiro Kaku as Miyamoto (Mark).
Synopsis: As middle school students, Hana follows Alice's lead. The two best friends are inseparable, whether taking the train to various places, going to school, or at ballet lessons. Coming across two uniformed boys at the the train station one day, Alice declares that she likes the taller, half-Japanese one, and tells Hana that she can have the shorter one, who always has his head buried in a book and constantly repeats a very long, nonsensical sentence to himself.
After passing their high school entrance exams, the two deal with the unflattering uniforms and continue in their friendship as before. At school, Hana joins the two-person storytelling club and is christened "Hanna the Funky" by the club leader, who wears a kimono, has a terrible hairstyle, and is extremely sketchy (more on this later). The only other member of the club is Miyamoto, the train boy, who completely ignores her and leaves her at the mercy of the club leader's bizarre behavior.
Following Miyamoto home from school one day, she sees him get in an accident (like everything about Miyamoto, this term is used in the most inert sense possible). She rushes to his side, declares that he has amnesia because he can't remember saying "I love you" to her, goes with him to the hospital, and henceforth makes it her goal to help him "remember" their previous relationship. This is, of course, a time-consuming endeavor, and she gradually drifts apart from Alice as a result.
Suddenly at leisure in her extracurricular hours and unable to stay at home, Alice starts pursuing a modeling career and is shown in a series of awkward auditions that lead nowhere, until Hana seeks her out again to help her maintain the web of lies she has woven around Miyamoto's life. Through these experiences, their friendship is taken through the breaking point of adolescence, with poignant lessons for all.
Opinion: My roommate Hanna and I held high hopes for our respective namesakes in this film, and were alternately frustrated and surprised by the sheer unpredictability of the story. As mentioned before, Miyamoto is a mere breath away from being inanimate, while Hana and Alice vary from being vulnerable to being totally nuts. This is a very, very quirky movie with many beautiful scenes, some hilarious scenes (whether purposefully so or not is up to debate), one scene that I found completely unwatchable (involving the storytelling club president in a very improper one-man show), and several scenes I can only describe as slightly absurd, though I don't say that in a condemnatory way. A bit too loosely edited, this movie would have profited from condensation in terms of duration and cohesion in regard to structure.
Verdict: 6.0/10.0 Hanna liked the movie a lot; I thought it was ok.
(Sam-soon, Hee-jin, Henry, Jin-heon. Picture from MBC website.)
