KoReAn FiLmS

My Sassy Girl, The Classic, Lovers in Paris

Ever since I watched My Sassy Girl last year, I have this craving for Korean films. I don’t know why but I really find it intriguing especially when I can’t guess the ending. You’re so soaked up with the whole plot that you forget to try to guess the end of the story. Thanks to these writers who make stories with a little twist. This may sound icky but I love these films. Like My Sassy Girl, the love story is immersed with comedy and angst. You feel like shouting every time you are in the lead actors’ shoes. It’s so funny, weird, nakakaasar, and over-all exquisite. It has a unique style in romance that you just can’t stop till the movie is over. At the end, you can say “Wow”. Where did they ever find such a story? You’re so engrossed with the plot that you just can’t blink! I’ve got to give these Koreans an A+ for a good story.
Then there’s The Classic. The same director as My Sassy Girl, Jae-Young Kwak, it also tells the love story of the mother and daughter. Two different timelines, but one feel-good movie. Wow again! I haven’t seen a movie with two different love stories in a setting of one. It’s kinda weird huh? But the stories are intertwined with the right ingredient. The stories are blended in perfectly and I take my hat off to the director.

Unfortunately I haven’t bought the movie “Il Mare” which stars Jeon Ji-Hyun of My Sassy Girl. Wala pang stock. The story tells of a girl who bought a house by the wharf and gets love letters from her mailbox. These letters have been sent by the previous owner who magically ends up in her mailbox. Duh? You didn’t get it huh? It’s like this. She’s in the present, he’s in the past. He sends letters from the 90’s and she receives it like in 2000. Different timelines again! Previous owner, present owner scenario. Reading its synopsis, there’s one scene where she sits on the wharf’s bench beside him but in reality they both are sitting alone. Meaning the guy was sitting during the past, and the girl in the future. And what is its plot? They end up loving each other through the love letters in the mailbox. Hanep! I didn’t think of that kind of story! Weird but cool.

Then lastly, Lovers in Paris which we are watching for the nth time now via VCD & TV. And the ending is so…mean. But then you can interpret it in so many ways. Park Shin-Yang (Carlo/Han Ki Joo) is so good an actor. He studied film in Russia. Kim Jung-Eun (Vivian/Kang Tae-Yung) also is a good actress. She was a model before acting. They both won the SBS Awards, which is the highest award in Korea.

Epilogue: Meteor Garden. This was why it started in the first place! (Also watched it for the nth time before Lovers in Paris)

Pit Senyor!

Sinulog 2005 Jan. 16 Sunday. Every year we celebrate it bonggang bongga under our current Mayor Tomas Osmeña. It all started way back in 1984 under Mayor Solon. The festivities lasted till night fall and you can see the colorful and beautiful floats of Kodak and the colored hard hats of Atlas Mining Corp. That was then, this is now. Sinulog is meant to celebrate the feast of the Sto. Niño. Sto Niño was given by Magellan as gift to Rajah Humabon of Cebu. The symbol of Sinulog is Sto. Niño and Sinulog means sinug, the act of lighting a candle and dancing in front of the church while praying.
But boy! Look at it now. That’s why I don’t usually go out and watch the festivities because its meaning has been misunderstood all these years. If you look at the commercialized t-shirts, advertisements, and all the hullabaloos, you can see that Sto. Niño is not there anymore! We are not Ati-atihan? Most of the shirts and newspaper advertisements carry pictures of black Indians or Ati-atihan persons with spears, Indian shields. My Gulay! That’s not Sinulog. I’ve been disappointed all these years and thank God I have this blog to pour out my *****. All these advertisements should carry the symbol of the Sto. Niño! Then there’s painting on the faces, and people drank beer all throughout the day. And you can see drunks in the early afternoon. So what’s there to go out? You can see it on TV. It’s not like in the early years where you can see the symbol of the Sto. Niño everywhere. Now, most of the advertisements show pictures of Ati-atihan. Eh di mag-ati-atihan nalang tayo. Are we celebrating Sinulog or Ati-atihan? And it’s just too commercialized. The essence is not there anymore.

Well, thanks to some who still know the meaning of Sinulog. Just remember: Sinulog is the feast of the Sto. Niño and nothing else. Thanks to the baby child Jesus for protecting Cebu all these years. And to everyone…Pit Senyor!