Classic!

This morning, Kaytee asked me on YM: If someone were to play you in a movie, who would it be?

Nah, I'm not about to answer that here, but if my love story was to be a movie, I'd like it to be The Classic (the story of the daughter).



I watched this film about two years ago, in the early cusps of my fascination with Asian cinema. Jove sent us an email raving about the "running-in-the-rain scene" so I just had to find out what he was talking about.

The Classic is actually composed of two love stories, that of Ji-hye's and her mother's. The film jumps from past (the mother's love story) to the present (Ji-hye's) and both roles are played by one actress (Son Ye-jin).

Kwak Jae-yong, who directed My Sassy Girl, also directed this movie. That's why I thought the music in the soundtrack was quite familiar. There is a liberal playing of Pachelbel's Cannon in D Major. Sassy Girl played it on the piano, if I am not mistaken, while Ji-hye, or rather, her fellow violinists, played it in this movie. For MSG fans like me, there would be a lot of familiar ground here, like the rainy scene of the young lovers running in the fields (which is said to be inspired from this 1979 Korean movie, Rain Shower).

Some weeks ago, I was talking to OW about Korean movies. And she asked me if I have watched The Classic. "What's your favorite scene?", she asked. "The rain scene!" I replied and we both shrieked in classic sisterhood (pun intended).

There are actually two scenes here that had me shrieking out of kilig while I was watching it again last night. First is the museum scene where Ji-hye sees her friend and Sang-min. They are walking on parallel sides with walls and paintings blocking their view every now and then. As they walk through, they steal glances at each other, with the unknowing girlfriend between them. Sang-min's smile in the second-to-the-last frame is precious.

The other kilig moment is the much-raved one, the rain scene. First, we see Ji-hye after her violin class seeking cover from the rain under a large tree in the school grounds. While she is wondering what to do next, she spies Sang-min running in her direction, also seeking refuge from the rain. She turns her back on him, hoping he won't notice. But of course, he sees her. She seems to be in a hurry to leave so he offers to go with her, but since neither of them had an umbrella, he took off his jacket and shielded their heads with it. They run under the pouring rain, stopping in between colonial-style buildings that reminded me of Cambridge, more than Oxford. (And the catchy theme song serves as the background to this scene.) Finally, they get to Ji-hye's destination. They exchange a few awkward goodbyes and as soon as Sang-min runs back into the rain, Ji-hye scrambles up the steps to the window to get a glimpse of him.



A few scenes later, Ji-hye is in the small cofee shop (more like a school canteen) and the lady was carefully folding an umbrella. She casually mentioned that Sang-ming left it the other day when it was raining hard and she was sort of confused because why would Sang-min run into the rain, leaving his umbrella behind? The lady said he was just standing there drinking coffee and looking out of the window when he suddenly decided to run out into the rain. Ji-hye moved to the window and true enough, she realised that the tree under which she took refuge from was on direct sight from there and it dawned on her now that he had been watching her.

For me, the most important question -- that happens to be a dilemma too -- harbors on friendship and love. See, Ji-hye and her friend are both in love with Sang-min. The friend even asks her to write love letters to Sang-min and she did, pouring her own feelings to him. Sang-min, touched by the attention, was initially with the friend, but for some reasons, found himself getting attracted to Ji-hye. Of course, in the film's end, it brings us to a conclusion that Ji-hye and Sang-min were meant to continue the love story of a past long gone, but that is all I am going to say on the matter in order not to spoil the ending.

But the burning question is: Would you fall for someone with whom your friend is also in love with? Would you even write him letters, pouring your own feelings into it, knowing fully well that it might make him fall in love with your friend, not you? And would you give up that love for the sake of friendship?

When I was in university, I became friends with DT and G. DT, from day one, obviously had a thing going for G, but because I was selfish, I refused to see that and started seeing G anyway. Did I end up happy? No. G and I (as I wrote in a previous entry Yupki Girl) had an "MU", in short, a poorly defined relationship. I was always asking kami ba or is it just me? To make the long story short, it did not work out, we parted, I haven't heard from him again. But a year or so later, a mutual friend told me that DT and G were now "dating". Even if I had moved on from G, I still felt a shot through my heart. I knew that what happened with G and I wedged a wall in that three-cornered friendship. And that's when I decided that I will not let that happen again. I lost a love and most importantly, I lost friends.

Now, back to The Classic. An incident similar to the museum scene happened with TB (Mr Little Red Dot) months ago. He was talking with PS while I was talking with another girl at editorial. I did not realise that MS was calling my attention because I just caught myself that moment looking at TB and realising that he was looking at me too! And we were there caught in a web across the room. PS was pointing something out to him and I could hear MS asking me something. But for some reasons, we were like frozen in that moment.

Sadly, there has been no running in the rain. Yet.