"Yeonjiri" My Take

With nothing to do on a Saturday night, I decided to look into my collection of still unwatched korean movies. I decided on Jo Han-sun and Choi Ji-woo film "Yonjiri"/Now and Forever.

Min-su(Han-sun) is the CEO of a gaming company who loves to play the field even when it comes to women. All will change after he meet's Hye-won (Jiwoo) while he's on his way to a hospital for a routine check-up after he met a minor road accident. Hye-won is also going to the same hospital and in her rush to leave the car she left her mobile phone. Minsu thought she was a nurse and tried locating her but due to a twist of fate Hye-won herself showed up in his room clad in a hospital gown.

Here's where the story lines inconsistencies started and ruined the whole thing for me. Girl shows up in your room dressed like a patient when you assumed all along that she's a nurse but Min-su never even blurted out "Oh, you're also a patient here" or maybe "what wrong with you". Instead she asked the girl out the following day so he can buy her a cellphone because he pretended to have lost the one left in his car. While on the way out Hye-won keeps hiding her face so as not to be recognized by the hospital staff. Mission accomplished they return to the hospital.

Hye-won is supposed to be afflicted with a terminal illness *yes it's the same scenario again* hence her confinement to a hospital but she goes out whenever she feels like it under the noses of the entire hospital staff.

They continue dating but not once did the guy exert any effort to know why she is staying in a hospital. Is love that blind that you tend to lose any common sense. Then the girls doctor finally talks to Min-su and the next scene shows him getting depressed. Hye-won left the hospital so she can avoid Min-su but typical of a melodrama the guy comes back professing his love no matter what the circumstances are. Girl says no but after seeing how the guy is suffering will give in.

Next are scenes of them making the most of their time together and falling more inlove with each other. Now here comes another twist, the guy is also dying from brain cancer but is keeping it to himself or so he thought. Unknown to him, Hye-won was informed of Min-su's condition by her doctor *so where's the patient - doctor confidentiality here*.

To make the ending more dramatic the couple went to Hye-won's hometown. The scene showing Hye-won and Minsu up on a hill hugging each other under two trees with brances entwined to each other with the sea, and a clear blue sky as a backround is breathtaking. Soon thereafter Hye-won dies and leaves a message to Min-su thanking him for the love and that he was a fool to think she was not aware of his illness.

I was hoping Choi Ji-woo would show some improvement in the acting department since she's portrayed this kind of role countless times before. She can shed tears without looking like a crumpled piece of paper but she lacks depth. Jo Han-sun was ok but not outstanding. Overall it a mediocore film with a very predictable ending.