‘Il Mare’/'Siworae’ (Korean) 2000 directed by Lee Hyun-seung
Genre: Romance
Rating: ****/*****
‘The Lakehouse’ 2006 directed by Alejandro Agresti
Genre: Romance
Rating: ***/***** (would be ** if not for the beautiful scenery)
What is it about Hollywood that they have to remake Asian films? Almost always, the Western remakes are flashier, more flamboyant, have better shock potential, and significantly better sets, but they inevitably either twist the real meaning of the story or fall short of transmitting the subtle emotions that have made so many Asian films wonderful masterpieces of the human soul.
Score points for ‘Lakehouse’:
- sparkling waters, pink sunsets/dawns
- more glam looking actress and actor
- the introduction, where they show the directors names and stuff, was beautifully done, love the handwriting…
Score points for ‘Il Mare’
- the set more effectively projects the permeating sense of yearning and loneliness
- smoother transition between existences two years apart
- cuter Cola (the dog)
- better soundtrack (I love the song at the ending, what’s the title?)
- the lady realised that it was only because of her that the guy ‘died’
Major Boos for ‘Lakehouse’
- corny transitions between two-year apart existences, making it seem as if… it’s just odd.
- portraying Sandra Bullock into a potential psy patient… at times it looked like she was hallucinating!
- the accident killing the guy did not happen (though it was the same for ‘Il Mare’, they did film it as if it happened, and the impact of it was much greater!)
- the guy found the book the gal forgot tat the train station, but he couldn’t put it into the mailbox but had to hide it under some floor planks???
- why does Sandra Bullock have to a be a doctor huh… (doesn’t run well with her believing in time-transcendence) Couldn’t she have been like a writer instead…
- I thought it was ridiculous when we have Bullock in her 2006 and Reaves in his 2004 both staring at the mailbox’s lever going up and down, and exchanging letters like that. I know I would have freaked if it were me! Are we having a romance movie here or a horror movie?
Major Boo for ‘Il Mare’
- Couldn’t you just let the guy die and leave it at that? Heh heh… Then we can have the actress stop mooning over her ex (who isn’t even good-looking) and let her take up architecture and move into the house that the actor commissioned to have built for her! Don’t you realise that if you’d killed him, it would make this quote in the movie all the more meaningful?
“It’s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.”
- Something was wrong with the subtitling, I couldn’t read the last quarter of quite a few sentences… but thankfully, the movie didn’t have as much dialogue as emotion dialogue so I was still able to follow quite well
Review of ‘Il Mare’
The simple set, simple emotions, and scenes, even the one with her red mittens being washed away by the sea was so poignant, combined with the perpetual look of yearning on our hero and heroines faces determine the entire mood of the film - one of loneliness and a yearning for a twin-soul (what we beautifully and poetically term as ‘alma gemela’). I believe this is the making of a masterpiece. To express so much with so little. I highly recommend watching it, not at all because it’s some sob story but to find out how well you will relate to the characters (even if you hadn’t been in any relationship before).
And I totally feel the truth in this phrase…
“We’re tormented because love goes on, not because it goes away.”
Ah, bittersweet.
