April Snow

This film's presence is simple but effective: After hearing that two people, a man and a woman, were involved in a very serious car accident, their respective spouses rush to the hospital. They find out that these two people were having an affair. Since they had to stay in a hotel while their spouses remain in comas, they see each other all the time and eventually begin having their own affair. The good thing about this film is how director Jin-ho Hur makes this not only believable a premise but also makes it seem completely natural. However, he needed good actresses to make his vision work and he found them: Yong-joon Bae plays the husband of the crash victim and the quite pretty (actually, both are good looking)Ye-jin Son the wife. Both take this necessarily slow moving film to a very dangerous but somehow natural place. The film has a refreshing subtlety, and the film is shot beautifully, great cinematography. While not a great film, it certainly conveys the themes of sadness, betrayal and eventually lust quite well. I would recommend this, it kept my interest throughout.

Yes, it's a bit like Random Hearts and I guess In the Mood for Love, but I liked the realism of it. I liked that they had a reason to stay near each other because their spouses needed tending (best looking coma victims, ever!). I like a bit of logic in my romances.

I really enjoyed the lead actress. In the few Korean movies I've seen, the lead actresses always seem too done-up (hair, make-up, perfect clothes and shoes). This actress was just a bit messier and a bit more average in her appearance, which made her all the more attractive. I could relate to her numb anger. She's mad, but she also has an ill husband to watch over. I like too that she's the one who approaches the other man first. That she reaches out and doesn't stay all locked up in her grief. I hope I can find more movies she's been in.

My favorite moment at the very beginning is when she spots the condom in the basket and just freezes and knows. She just knows in that instant. And he just grabs it to hide it away.

It was romantic without going over the top. Very cool.

Take IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE but have the protagonists meet when their spouses are in a serious car crash, don't be so bloody obtuse about the whole thing, and you're on way to making APRIL SNOW. Writer/director Hur Jin-Ho is certainly not a cheerful chap, with his trilogy of seasonally-named films each taking a depressing scenario and quietly exploring the characters' pain... yet somehow his films don't end up actually being depressing. The situation could easily lend itself to melodrama (and the soundtrack seems like it wants to go there), but the characters and emotions feel too real and natural.

Although the plot of the film is essentially very predictable, it's all about the details... the unassuming direction places the actors in the spotlight - a light that pierces right into the characters, and requires superb performances from the cast. Luckily Bae Yong-Joon and the gorgeous Son Ye-Jin are capable of delivering exactly that.

Very well crafted and enjoyable, though not so innovative as ONE FINE SPRING DAY.

There was another Hollywood movie by Harrison Ford, forgot the title, same synopsis, husband (Ford) wife in horrific accident and she was cheating on him with the other man, also injured. He also got close to the man's wife.

The K version gets up close and personal with the respective wife and husband. Btw the characters are so good looking, they cheating couple must be out of their minds. As K movies tend to be, this is slow and agonizing, with long pauses. Had to deduct two points for this. Sometimes they even show an empty long corridor for whatever reason best known to the Director.

Good acting by the two main actors. The ending was inevitable. For die hard romantics maybe a stab in the heart?

The role of the mobile phone, in the making of and destruction of romantic relationships. Hands up, those of you who have used it to flirt, and keep your hands there if you have an archive of secret messages stashed away in one of the electronic folders of your phone's memory. Password protection, afraid of someone dear chancing upon them, aren't you? Bae Yong-jun (geeks of the world, rejoice!) stars as In-su, a man whose wife met with an accident. Terribly shaken, he sees his spouse in the hospital intensive care unit, in a comatose state. Unknowingly, he meets a woman Seo-young (classic beauty Son Ye-jin) at the ward, whose husband too, was involved in the same accident. Slowly, they discover that their spouses were cheating behind their backs, thereby giving both another blow to their emotions.

I'm not really a fan of the bespectacled Bae, but in this film, he has demonstrated his acting prowess somewhat, if not already seen by most fans in his famed TV series Winter Sonata. You see the pain of a man who has dawned upon the knowledge of being betrayed by a spouse, the sadness emoting through his eyes when he reads SMS from the strayed spouse to her lover, and the intolerance viewing the video clip of their tryst in a hotel room. Here's a man who had lived in a web of adulterous deceit.

And in the same boat, Son Ye-jin, ever so vulnerable as the clueless housewife Seo-young, who suffers silently while awaiting for her husband to awaken from his coma. On one hand, she hates him for what he has done, but on the other, still dutifully cares for him. And this duality and fighting of emotions for their respective spouses ring through the state of confusion both In-su and Seo-young are in.

Sure, they want to seek revenge, which I suppose is a normal human reaction in these circumstances, but how? The other party's spouse happens to be a victim too, and hereby lies the dilemma in the inability to exact sweet justice. Or can they? As they meet up more often, by chance or otherwise, to have someone to talk to, to spend time with, to have meals together, each becomes the pillar of strength for the other, while they seek to unravel the rationale of their spouses' illicit affair.

A drunken slip of the tongue became the foreplay, and it's no rocket science that they decide to express their emotions in a physical manner, as promoted in the trailers. Note that I did not mention "love". It doesn't seem so at this point - their body language seemed more like strangers, their movements awkward. It's like for the purpose of releasing pent-up anger and frustration, of getting back and for the sake of getting even. Twisted; weird. Love? No.

But Love, probably, did creep in after a while. But you question if this is love out of convenience, of being there for the other person, just like the other is there for you, in dire straits? And in an attempt to steer this controversial romance theme (Two wrongs don't make a right - love borne out of an affair) into more mainstream acceptance, the filmmakers brought in Fate to decide - to have something identifiable between the two leads, for them to make the decision on their plausible future. Hence the title.

But the one scene which stood out for me, is the one where the confrontation is held. There isn't a need to ask point blank questions. A side remark in passing, and you'll come to understand whether it's worth burying the hatchet, or not.

And it's kinda back to full circle, as the mobile device which destructed one side of the relationship, ended up nurturing another. Such is the electronic era we live and cope in.