Architecture 101 is a romance film by Lee Yong-ju starring Uhm Tae-woong, Han Ga-in, Lee Je-hoon and Bae Suzy. The film is currently the most watched romantic mellow movie of all time in Korea, surpassing the record of Maundy Thursay and You are My Destiny.
The film tells the story of Seung-min, an architect who meets again his first love asking him to design and rebuild her old house. He accepts the job and memories of the past flash back as they work together.
15 years ago, Seung-min was a naive freshman architecture student. He met Seo-yeon in Architecture 101 class. They worked together in a class project and became friends. He fell in love with her but ended up cutting ties with her due to a misunderstanding.
If Crazy Little Thing Called Love brings us back to high school memories, this film makes us miss our college days and reminisce our first loves and first heartbreaks. Most romance films center the story around the heroine but this film is mainly about our male protagonist. It's about him dealing the feeling of first love. He's timid and shy, always nervous and sometimes awkward. The film is especially a hit to the male audience because many of them can relate to Seung-min. It makes them feel nostalgic about their first loves. Oh, first love.
Spoiler. Love is timing (borrowed from 9 Ends 2 Outs). It's not just about having feelings for each other, timing also matters. Some fall in love and lose it because the timing is just not right. And sometimes, that right 'timing' never comes. That is reality. It's not always a happy ending. But of course, first love is always precious. You cannot turn back time and sometimes it is just not possible for you to reconcile, but memories of that love will always be remembered. (Oh, am I really writing these? Haha!)
The acting and writing were perfectly fine, the story was presented at its best. You know that bitter-sad-somewhat-happy feeling after watching a movie? It has that factor. The ending kills me but that's how it should be. I think, it will be forgettable if the conclusion was the other way around.
Rating: 9/10
Here are screencaps I took. You'll get the whole story if you look at these photos (Spoilery!).
I really liked the movie.....but the ending killed it. How pointless.
ReplyDeleteArchitecture 101 is a very touching and beautiful picture. I liked all four of the actors both the pair that played the young couple and the two that played the adult couple. What I like was how the emotional life of the adults was formed and informed by their interactions in the past, at the moment when they were both naïve, but their attraction to each other was innocent and pure. I like the fact that their naiveté was what stood in the way of resolving the problem that ended in a tragic but touching result. I liked how, while they were both reluctant to fully reenter the past, nevertheless they were driven to do so in order to bring that tragic circumstance to an emotional resolution.
ReplyDeleteWhile the ending was disheartening, because we so much want them to connect up again in order to satisfy ourselves that a love so pure can skip over and overcome the tragic circumstances, the ending was the correct one. You know that they both wanted that. Indeed the guy, though he had never been close to his mother nevertheless almost begged her to give him permission to stay home to take care of her. But as ever, the mother, unbeknown to herself, stood in the way of has relationship with the girl by telling him to go to America, because the mother was trying to do what she though was right for her son. The telling detail was that she was still wearing that “T-shirt” that brought back all the tragic memories to him. As he went to the front gate he saw the part where he had kicked in, he tried to bend it back, but failed to do so. The fact that he was not able to fix the gate, after those many years made him realized that the past could not bent back.
As a man of honor, he realized the past was gone, and though he did not love his fiancée with the same degree of depth, he also realize that he was not an adult and had to be responsible for his actions and had to follow through with the destiny that laid ahead. The resolution to the film was that he sent back the CD and player to his former girl friend, which was a belated apology, that indicated that he did, indeed, go to the house at the first snow fall, and had held on to it all those years, as she had held on to his drawing and model of the house. It indicated that he loved her as much as he him, and knowing that for each was the resolution that was possible after so much water had gone under the bridge. It did mean, that though at this time they cannot hook up, that what had stood in the way is now past, and that he will continue to love her in a way that is deeper than it would be if they just hooked backed up.
So True, I cryed my self to sleep after watching this Video.
DeleteNice thoughts. I totally agree.
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