Heartbreak Library, or Page 198 in His Book (그 남자의 책 198쪽), is a Korean movie made in 2008 about two people, both on the road to recovery from a breakup with their significant other. It stars Lee Dong-Wook and Yoo Jin (Eugene). The summary is as follows:
Eun-soo, a librarian watches for book vandalism that currently happens in the library. One day, she catches Jun-oh tearing off certain pages of books. Eun-soo accuses him of vandalism but soon discovers the complex story behind his actions. Jun-oh’s girlfriend suddenly leaves him with only a mysterious note: “Look up page 198”. Jun-oh’s girlfriend was a bibliophile and she checked out books regularly at the library. Jun-oh goes to the library and tears out page 198 from every book he comes in touch. As Eun-soo has just broken up, she gives him an advice saying that he has to let her go if she really meant it. However, looking at Jun-oh torn apart by his love, Eun-soo starts to help him decipher the messages on page 198 of all the books...
It's a pretty sweet story about coping with love lost, no matter how it happens, and just accepting it. It's interesting as both the guy and the girl are going through the same thing, even though there are some rather major differences between their respective failed loves. It doesn't go too in-depth in either of their stories, though the guy's background story is revealed more, which makes sense as it is a movie. I also like how the two didn't jump straight into the bandwagon of getting together - it would be way too unbelievable - and their relationship slowly progressed rather believably, even though they still didn't know much about the other.
All in all, it was a sweet story of falling out of love and the budding of new love, as it never really gets that far, and the pain that one may go through. Although there aren't many laugh-out-loud moments, there are moments that made me smile.
You can watch it here.
Picture taken from here, which also includes links where you can download this movie as well as the trailer.
