This movie dreams of being the “Korean version of La La Land”, 122 minutes filled with magic
Below is a review of the movie “Life is Beautiful”.
“Life is Beautiful” is a Korean film with the same title as the Italian film of the same name. Along with the exciting group choreographies on songs that are loved by Koreans who can guess those songs just by listening to the intro, 122 minutes of the movie are filled with magic. Songs that were loved by the entire nation from the 1970s to the 2000s are delivered sensibly through the screen.
As a commercial musical film, a genre that has not been exploited well in Korea, the main point of the movie lies in the songs and choreographies that naturally permeate the story. Did they dream of making a Korean “La La Land”? In Korea, there’s a joke that music and science movies cannot fail here. In other words, even if music movies are not that good, they will still achieve some kind of success.
Of course, it’s still an unfamiliar genre to many. It will get better if you adapt well to the cheesy beginning. Each person will need some effort to enter, but the result was a great success. From the beginning, the setting in which a man’s wife was terminally ill and the Seoul Theater, which recently disappeared into history, evokes strange sympathy. Se-yeon and Jin-bong meet at the age of 20 and share their first kiss while watching the early morning movie at the Seoul Theater. As if promised, the movie started with Lee Moon-se’s “Early Morning Discount,” suggesting a good beginning.
A husband who goes to find his wife’s first love
The movie “Life is Beautiful” is a musical road movie in which Oh Se-yeon (Yum Jung-ah), who has lived as the mother of her children and the wife of her husband all her life, leaves to find her first love with her husband Jin-bong (Ryu Seung-ryong) ahead of her sudden death. Se-yeon, who has devoted herself to her family knowing that there is not much time left, is busy completing her bucket list. She dreams of traveling around the country with her husband under the pretext of her last birthday present. As a result, their trip to Bogildo, Seoul, Mokpo, Busan, Cheongju, and Ttangkkeut Village begins.
The blunt Jin-bong grumbles all the time, but he doesn’t hate the time being alone with his wife. He is sorry that he has been making his wife suffer the whole time since they got married, but his words always come out in vain. However, his wife is talking about her first love. Since he has decided to listen to her wishes, they go on a time trip to the past in search of her first love. What will his wife’s first love look like?
A film suitable for a warm and plentiful autumn
As we trace the memories of the two little by little, Korea’s history and individuals’ history interlink. The two met during the pro-democracy movement in the 1980s then got married and raised children during the IMF era in the 1990s. The loneliness of middle-aged people who met around the age of 20, gradually forgot each other and became parents draws sympathy. If you follow the memories of their forgotten first love, you will be reminded of a time when you could not raise your head because of your busy life. Yum Jung-ah and Ryu Seung-ryong’s trustworthy couple combination worked.
If the front part is an introduction to the middle-aged couple and their families, when you move on to the middle and latter parts, you naturally enter into the heart of young Se-yeon. Ong Seong-wu, Park Se-wan and Shim Dal-gi are responsible for this. It summons you back to your youthful days, when you were young and innocent.
Even if it was made into a musical, it would not be inferior. If it is moved to the stage, you can imagine what kind of directing it will be. You just need to sit in the theater seat and coordinate your steps with your feet.
It is a strange movie that makes you cry when you are trying to smile. It is full of universal stories that everyone can relate to and songs that everyone can sing along with. It would be perfect to store a warm heart in preparation for the cold winter. If you want a yellow, red and plentiful autumn rather than a lonely one, “Life Is Beautiful” is recommended.
Source: Daum
