The film details the 26-year-old Korean student's experiences in Japan, including going to school and his developing romance with a Japanese student (Mākii). He died on January 21, 2001, along with a Japanese photographer, Shiro Sekine, while both were trying to save the life of a man who had fallen onto the tracks at the Shin-Ōkubo Station in Tokyo.
I like films that show cultural differences (not to mention linguistic differences). It might be the budding anthropologist within me speaking, but I just like it - and that was why I decided to watch this. Oh, and the plot sounded sweet, touching, and had a good chance of entertaining me. Ah - and I like things that are based on real events, which this is. (Here's a little article on the aftermath of what happened.) Anyway, because it's been made into a film, it may be based on a real person, but what happened may not be. Even so, I enjoyed it anyway. It showed the differences between Tae-hyun and Yuri from family life, culture, and their own different personalities and how they got together anyway. He was more traditional and immersed within Korean culture whereas she came from a more dysfunctional family and has lost most of her traditional Japanese traditional practices. It's pretty interesting, though like the Japanese drama, Smile, it also showcases some of the prejudices against foreigners that may occur within Japan, and for that, I give it props.
All in all, it's a nice bridge between both Korea and Japan, which has had its rocky history, and Japan had used this guy's heroic story for the sake of saving someone in order to bridge the differences that may still be present. For the entertainment and melodramatic factor that is mandatory in Asian cinema, it was a sweet and touching story about a budding romance that was never meant to be and the far-reaching effects he gave to the people around him.
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