Monday, April 06, 2009

Virgin Snow


So I just finished watching Virgin Snow, or here (첫눈/Cheonnun or 初雪の恋/Hatsuyuki no Koi), which is a Korean-Japanese collaborated romantic movie. It stars Lee Jun Ki and Aoi Miyazaki. The summary is as follows, taken from Wikipedia:

Min, a Korean boy, moves to Japan with his father who is a potter. One day at a local shrine, he meets Nanae, a beautiful Japanese girl with stunning eyes who is aspiring to be a painter. Min falls in love at first sight and finds out that Nanae attends the school to which he has just transferred. Their friendship develops fast despite their cultural and language difference. Yet when Min's grandmother suddenly falls ill, Min hastily returns to Korea without having the time to explain Nanae the situation. After his grandmother regains her health, Min hurries back to Japan but Nane is nowhere to be found. Had his true feelings for Nanae not been apparent to her? Why has Nanae disappeared without a word?

First, I wanted to watch it because I just finished Boys Over Flowers and second, because I heard Lee Jun Ki was in it. :) However, after I looked more into it, I thought it sounds pretty intriguing since it contrasts Japanese and Korean culture. While watching it, it was endearing and sweet, but it lacked the something more. The acting was fine and everything and the generalised cultural differences (like Min's personality being more 'strong' and active while Nanae was more quiet and reserved) was pretty interesting. At first, it sort of annoyed me how Min refused to even try to fit into Japanese society by attempting to learn the language, but I suppose the fact that he finally decided to learn some because of her is pretty nice, but not a surprise.

The romance in the movie wasn't bad either. It was short (as it's a movie and all) but it mostly consisted of them going out randomly, Min doing something funny while trying to get her attention, or something of the sort. All in all, it was somewhat entertaining and towards the end, I really felt the emotions more, but it isn't what I'd call spectacular.

... Besides the fact the Lee Jun Ki's in it. :)

You can watch it at MySoju, but I ended up watching it on YouTube (this is the link to the first video, there is a total of 11 parts) because the videos were "under repair" at MySoju.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I watched this for Lee Jun Ki - and thought it was shot beautifully. But I agree it fell kind of short. Have you seen the older Korean/Japanese movie Friends? That was a lot longer & I felt had much more depth - the story was much more satisfying.

Sirhin said...

I haven't watched it, but I did look it up and it looks promising. :) Thanks! I'll be sure to watch it... once I find it.