Friday, September 26, 2008

April Snow Revisited

Hi Hi ....... It was the latest work of Yong Joon when I first knew about him. It was the most translated reviews on a movie that I've ever read (thanks to our dear camille). It's also the movie that gosijo and I have missed watching in the Toronto Film Festival. Yes, it's our beautiful ''April Snow'! So when cloudnine told me a couple of weeks ago that April Snow would be shown on big screen again, I had been counting down to meeting a gigantic Insoo in front of me ........


'April Snow' was a spectacular and memorable event in Japan when it was shown in 2005. I've heard that some dear Japanese sisters have watched it over 50 times in the cinema, talk about support for our prince! I met up with cloudnine, her friend and Olivia, and I guess I was the only one who thought this was a BIG deal (so embarassing:) For the past 2 weeks, Cinemart has been showing all Korean movies. See the billboard?


Since April Snow is 3 years old already, this time there is 1 showing per day in Cinemart. We could only find a small
poster outside the theater.


Oh Oh, did I mention that they were showing the Director's Cut? We could see that last scene of Insoo in the bed with his wife @@ And dear camille and gosijo, I thought about both of you and wish you were there to watch together with us :)

Remember he got up from bed after their first time in the hotel. Seoyoung asked him if he had a good sleep. He answered in the softeste, gentlest, deepest, sexiest voice "Nee!". It practically melts me, that "nee" has forever stayed in my mind and my heart.


There is a souvenir shop in the cinema selling all kinds of Korean drama and Hallyu magazines


Olivia spotted these TWSSG puzzles - comes in 300, 500 and 1000 pieces! Hahaha, I think it's a great past time during those non-Damdeok's scenes when you are watching TWSSG, what do u think?


Hehe, these fans make me hotter with him waving at me :)


There were actually about 150 fans there, filling over half of the theater. I wonder if it's because there was not much publicity on it. Anyway, I was reminded of the 'short haired' days of Yong Joon. Insoo is mature, simple, quiet yet so attractive. Yong Joon amazed me all over again on how he could look like a whole different person in different roles.


After the movie, cloudnine took us to this famous udon shop. We sat in the tatami room at the back and they brought us these HUGE bowls of udon!! Trust me, it's really really humongous! We were laughing and put our faces over the bowl to have a steam facial :) Oh, the soup and the fried bean cake, and the udon too were sooooooooo oishii!



Hahaha, don't believe me? Just to show you the size of the udon bowl relative to a person. Gigantic, eh?


Thanks cloudnine, masako, olivia, (sorry, forgot the name of the other sister again) for a lovely day!

12 comments:

gosijo said...

Ah, I've been waiting for this post quite impatiently, almost as if I was going to seen the movie myself, haha!

The bed scene you refer to always reminds me of our dear h who so enjoyed the sweetness of In-soo's hug for his wife there. I still feel bad for telling her the significance of the dialogue in the scene, as it casts quite a different light on it, bittersweet, I guess. For me, it's even more poignant.

Hehe, I've confessed to my slowness in understanding certain things in Flowerbossa's blog and I have to share that in AS I hadn't followed the logic behind the scene where Seo-young removes her stockings in the hotel bathroom before re-joining In-soo. I only figured it out last month. Well, it IS subtle!!

bbmag said...

hey jaime, thanks for this!

me too, been waiting for this post ever since cloudnine told me you gals had gone to watch AS :p

and.... yea, me too thinks that AS is a movie with lots of nuances and little gestures... little gestures that actually hint at something, be it a thought, or a signal of something that's gonna come later... and i've thought it a movie that deserves lots of watching and re-watching. each time we watch it, we see new things that we hadn't noticed before.

and i came out of each re-watching with a renewed awe of director hur. i wonder what kind of intricate mind that man has, and what sensitive soul he must have...

and of course, after that, my next thought is typically at how well wuri yong joon carried the role. it's a pity some people didn't see the goodness he's put into the role.

anyway, all in all, i still maintain it's one of the most beautiful movies i've watched in my time.

Anonymous said...

Dear Jaime:
April Snow is also a favorite adult movie of mine: First, because Bae Yong Joon has captured the humanity of man, his pain and suffering, his weakness as victim of adultery. Second, Son Ye Jin is also a great actress, beautiful, controlled, tasteful. Third, director Hur is a master of aesthetics, his quiet moments are like the metaphysical space of Oriental paintings, saying nothing but implying so much.
April Snow is a classic masterpiece even if it has created so much controversy and perhaps less profits than Winter Sonata.
Sarang Hamnida,
josephine pasricha

Toujours_BYJ said...

Hi hi Jaime

Thanks to my son's laptop, I'm able to visit your blog again without being kicked out of Firefox and IE.
I'm so happy to know that you can finally watch AS on big screen.
And me too, how I wish I was there with all of you to watch this wonderful movie again.

PS : OMG puzzle, my all time fave hobbies, and with our HRH ! I will send an e-mail to you Jaime

jaime said...

my dear gosijo,

those extra scenes in AS DC really complete the flow of the movie for me. Hehe thanks for reminding me about Insoo in bed, there is really 1 scene which I can never forget :

When he woke up after the first time they went to the hotel, seoyoung was folding his clothes, went up to ask him if he had a good sleep. He got up, answered in the softest, gentlest, sexist, deepest voice "Nee!", and gave her a hug. That "Nee" sound will never leave my mind and heart! sorry can't find the picture of the hug, just when he got up, turned around to look at her.

I'm puttng it up in the post now!
love ... jaime

jaime said...

hi princess,

I personally feel AS has done an excellent job in putting together a complete set of 'documentary' DVDs, supporting books, interviews to help us understand the making and thought process of Director Hur, Yong Joon and the staffs.

EVen though there're very few actors in each scene, I always picture the whole gang of staffs standing by on the other side of the camera! Thanks to the making DVD!

love ... jaime

jaime said...

hi josephine,

you know this time when I watched AS DC in the cinema. I have a very new appreciation of the 'plain-ness' of Insoo, almost to the point of a boring husband (although I can never believe this is real life Yong Joon). On the contrary, I started to see how 'beautiful' and 'fresh' SYJ portrayed this young housewife. Even though their acting is convincing, like BYJ said, I still cannot see how someone can have the eyes and heart on the other spouse when your own is still lying in the hospital bed.

thanks for your comment.
love ... jaime

jaime said...

dear camille,

i thought about u and gosijo when i was watching AS DC. oh, u must have a virus on your computer like me. it's been bugging me for the last few weeks. IE kept kicking me out, hubby told me he just fixed it now. hope your son will come and rescue soon :)

love .. jaime

gosijo said...

Hi everyone,

1) To Camille: I'm so glad to 'see' you here! I was beginning to worry...

2) To bb: yes, me too, new aspects every time I watch. My second regret in not seeing AS at the Toronto International Film Festival is that Director HJH was present and I would have loved to hear the Q&A, perhaps even ask a question of my own or tell him how well he succeeded with this movie.

3) To Jaime: I also like that 'dae' or 'nee' very much. To me, In-soo sounds like a child and their hug is very sweet, an interesting counter-point to what presumably happened before.

Also, thanks for your next posting on the Sky Aquarium. Very beautiful and well-worth the visit.

4) To Josephine: well said! And Jaime's comments to you are very interesting too as they remind us that we often allow the emotions in our hearts for BYJ to colour how we see him in his various roles. And it becomes an interesting experience to leave that aside, sometimes, and see if the actual characters he portrays can move us uniquely with their strength.

Anonymous said...

dear gosijo,

yes exactly, Insoo really sounded like a child, being fulfilled with what he desired and obviously felt being comforted, uttered this very light "nee" as voice of appreciation, maybe?

thanks for reminding me he's really like a child waking up seeing his mommy :)

love ... jaime

bbmag said...

wanna say something to gosijo's comment...

4) To Josephine: well said! And Jaime's comments to you are very interesting too as they remind us that we often allow the emotions in our hearts for BYJ to colour how we see him in his various roles. And it becomes an interesting experience to leave that aside, sometimes, and see if the actual characters he portrays can move us uniquely with their strength.

you know, just like how we fans are clouded by our rose-tinted glasses when we see wuri yong joon... some cynics or people who actually think wuri yong joon has only been successful with WLS also see what they want to see in insoo. some korean media and critics actually said they saw junsahng/min hyung in insoo... something that i could not comprehend then and even now.

but i suppose we're all human beings with our own preconceived ideas and our own 'filtering' system, so we see what we choose to see, and we believe what we want to believe.

i still think it sad that the korean audience didn't quite appreciate the beauty of the movie. whilst elsewhere (esp in france), the audience, general public and critics, all saw how wonderfully made the movie was, and how well-acted the roles were... i guess they were watching the movie with 'fresh' eyes and an open mind.

i feel especially sad for director hur and wuri yong joon.

but anyway, i guess it's not so much the number of audience the movie could draw, it's not just about box office success, ya? it's really about how well-loved the movie is by the people who really love it. just like how HWRL didn't have high ratings, but remains as something ultra-special to a small group of people. it may not have achieved breadth in terms of audience, but it least it had depth. i think wuri yong joon should be proud of both works.

jaime said...

hi hi princess,

thanks for your response to gosijo's comment. I read a sister's comment after watching his dramas - she feels like there is a real person living out there instead of the character. That's how convincing and successful his acting is - not overly dramatic but real. I think the proof is so many fans still ache for Jaeho and cheer for Chanwoo till now. I am starting to see this through Insoo now.

love ... jaime