Touches You

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Spawning a Hollywood remake 6 years later, THE LAKE HOUSE (2006), a star vehicle for Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock, IL MARE is an emblem of the "pure romance" sub-genre from Eastern Asia, typically in Japan and South Korea around millennium, aiming to the incorrigible romantics, whereas love transmits in its most unpolluted form between two beautiful-looking youngsters, a form eclipses puppy love among adolescents, and imbues a more substantial connection of limerence between two people. In this case, what makes IL MARE a critical standout is its inventive concept to present "time" itself as an unlikely obstacle between two lonely souls Sung-hyun (Lee) and Eun-ju (Jun).The fantasy premise is that, through a magical mailbox, Sung-hyun, a young architect in 1997, receives a letter from Eun-jun from 1999, who has just left the beach house, aka, Il Mare, which Sung-hyun stays now, and moved into a new apartment in town. The house is a gift from Sung- hyun's estranged father, and he is its first occupant, so clearly, he receives Eun-jun's letter from a nearer future, 2 years later exactly speaking.This uncanny communication enlivens both Sung-hyun and Eun-ju's lonesome existences, they exchange their stories, both have experienced a recent breakup, with some not-so-serious time- altering happenstances (e.g. collect a lost Walkman in 1998 and send it back to 2000) to bring about their mutual affections. Guaranteed a slow pace with an intrusive deploy of soft-focus aesthetic (if not a bit televisionary) to fabricate a dreamlike co-existence of how perfect they are made for each other, experience their pastimes in two paralleled universes, separately but vicariously accompanied by each other, Lee Hyun-seung's fairy-tale regrettably slumps into a cloying one-trick pony after the midstream, when the novelty runs dry, and some default plot-holes emerge.One might wonder, since Sung-hyun can regularly meet an unwitting Eun-ju in 1998, why he chooses not to get to know her in person, using the Walkman as a silence-breaker for instance. No, he would rather communicate with a future version of her and laments in his time-line, that the present version only reckons him like a stranger, but in fact, he is a total stranger to her, what does he expect? A more nagging resistance is that, it never occurs to Eun-ju that she should look for Sung-hyun in 2000, not until the moment arrives solely for the convenience of a major plot device, which is narrowly plausible but too conniving to consummate a satisfactory crescendo.The two leads are not given too much to act since the narrations of their letters take a big chunk of the story, and most of time, they are acting against themselves under a veneer of affected pretty- people-entrapped-in-the-loneliness narcissism with schmaltzy songs in the background, although Jun Ji-hyuan exhibits a tinge of sophistication at a rather young age of 18, augurs her soon-to-be- acquired mega-star popularity not just in her motherland.

Il Mare is a film about love story between two people separated by time. It touches the theme about long distance relationship. The plot is original and refreshing. In fact, Hollywood picked it up and remade it into a film that reunited the stars of Speed,Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock,entitled Lake House. The acting was excellent. Both Lee Jung-jae and Jun Ji-Hyun,were great as lovers writing letter to each other and sending it to the mysterious mailbox. The cinematography was commendable as well. The ending can be very sad and the last scene may provide confusion to a lot of viewers. But overall, the film is a must-see not only for Jun Ji- Hyun fans but for people who have appreciate great love stories. How does Il Mare compare to the Hollywood remake,Lake House?Il Mare was a lot better than The Lake House. Here are the reasons why.1. Il Mare keeps the audience guessing as to what is going to happen next while the plot is clichéd in The Lake House.2. You care more about Han Sung-hyun and Kim Eun-ju in the Korean version as compared to Alex and Kate in the Hollywood version. Credit that to Jun Ji-Hyun's performance as she has the ability to make you sympathize with her characters in her films. While in the Hollywood version, Keanu Reeves is not fit for any kind of romantic leads for he is more suited for action films like Speed and the Matrix.3. There was more emotion in the Korean version as compared to that of the Hollywood version. You know that the leads do care a lot for each other. 4. The Korean version focused on both leads and their loneliness while the Hollywood version involved more characters which made the viewer felt less for the emotions of the leads.5. Finally, the use of mailbox and writing letters was probably still common in South Korea during 1997 and 1999 in the Korean version while the use of email,google and the internet was already a way of life in the United States during 2004 and 2006 in the Hollywood version which made the plot of The Lake House less realistic and presented more plot holes. For movie fans, check Il Mare instead of The Lake House.

In a nutshell, A girl falls in love with a guy who is two years in her past. Romance and Time Travel has been around for a long time. Back to the Future is a romance. So is Chris Marker's Le Jetee (and as a consequence, 12 Monkeys) and Somewhere in Time. There are many plot devices to separate lovers and one of the most cruel (hence most romantic) is using implacable Time. So the time travel device is no longer a De Lorean or playing mental tricks on oneself but rather it's now a mailbox. I think more interesting are some directing effects (when the camera swings around the mailbox and the lovers seem like they are in the same space), some good shots of the skies and the deliberate, anti-MTV pacing of the movie. Lake House, the remake, is actually decent. It's fairly restrained and the house in the remake is prettier. It is not, however, that revolutionary, and therefore suffers in comparison with this remake. Lake House works because of the story, which is virtually the same here. Also, putting in two big name stars is distracting from a simple, gossamer story. Therefore, I have fonder memories of this Korean original.

This Korean film centres around a seaside house on the ocean. The lovers exist in different times (2000 and 1998) and can only communicate via the house's wooden mailbox. Their "long distance" relationship deepens and they try to find a way to be together. Overall very good. Good story, acting, & musical score. It has a sadness and visually stunning cinematography that done so well in many Korean films. The composition, lighting etc in many of the scenes are like beautiful works of art. I thought it dragged a bit in the middle but not overly.See this film if you're tired of the summer action blockbusters.I haven't seen the Sandra Bullock/Keanu Reeves remake (The Lake House, 2006) but I would bet it's not as good. Mainly, because it's got Reeves and Bullock in it.