Namnam buknyeo

When I stumbled upon this 2003 South Korean romantic drama titled "Namnam Buknyeo" (aka "Love of South and North"), I had never actually heard about it before. And with it being an Asian movie that I hadn't already seen, of course I found the time to sit down and watch this movie.

Writers Jin Han and Cho-Sin Jung delivered a somewhat sluggish script here. I am sure that the concept idea behind the movie's script was written with the best of intentions, but brought to life on the screen at the hands of director Cho-Sin Jung, I have to admit that the movie wasn't all that entertaining or enjoyable for my preference in entertainment from movies. And that made sitting through "Namnam Buknyeo" somewhat of an ordeal.

It should be said that the acting performances in "Namnam Buknyeo" were fair enough, and they had a good cast ensemble for sure. However, the actors and actresses just didn't have all that much solid material to work with from the writers. I especially found the written characters as being bland and pretty much without different and noticeable personality differences.

"Namnam Buknyeo" was not a great movie for me, and I don't feel that I have been missing out on anything by watching the movie 20 years after it was initially released. It was a bland and forgettable movie actually, and just as quietly as the movie eluded my radar, just as quietly will it disappear into the mists of oblivion, never to be seen a second time.

I mean for a movie where South Korea and North Korea come together, there just seemed there was so much squandered potential for hilarious situations here.

My rating of "Namnam Buknyeo" lands on a very generous three out of ten stars.

This is a fairly tame film about to young people who meet in Yanbian, China to participate in a excavation there of ancient Korean treasures. Chul-soo (In-Seong-Jo) is a lazy guy of privilege in South Korea who is going to Yanbian to be able to graduate. Yeong-Hee (the fairly beautiful Sa-rang Kim) is from North Korea and is an honors student. Chul-soo wants to be with her but, of course, given the conflict between the Koreas, it is quite a difficult thing to even think about, especially from Yoeng-hee's eyes.The film is political in that respect, but its simplistic in its approach, aiming low so you care less about their respective country's ideological differences and concentrate more on their relationship. Its an okay film, mostly a date movie. If you like these kind of films, its okay. Otherwise, it is not essential.