Well, I saw this movie on the flight Paris-Seoul in August 2002. I guess if you don't speak korean, the only chance you'll have to see this film is to grab a Koreanair flight... Unfortunately ! If recently in France, Asian cinema is getting stronger, it is more the japanese and chinese/HK/Taiwanese cinema that are getting the lion's share. Nothing much for the korean... It is the story about a guy who became partially amnesiac after a car accident. No big deal (except some embarassing gaffes) but he makes strange dreams about a girl he loved and whom he doesn't remember. His doctor tells him that this is a way for the memory to reconstruct itself, it means that this is an important fact, and that he should try to remember it. So our hero, who's weather man on TV, starts an investigation : who was that girl (whose face we don't see of course). So the movie is about this investigation. The guy is reconstructing his past, his college's years, but since he was kind of a secret guy, his pals, guys and girls, never knew whom he was really in love with... Obsessed with finding the girl he once loved to reconstruct his memory, he starts to see things differently at work and he doesn't notice he's slowly but surely falling in love again with a real girl, not a dream. And when he does notice that, he wants to give up his quest because that mystery girl doesn't mean anything anymore. Will he be able to embark in a new story and finding out why and by whom he was so obsessed in his past ?... As you guessed, it is a nice little romantic movie, but so far from the Meg Ryan's... Everything is done subtly and you enjoy being carried away in that story because it doesn't explain things like you're 12 and not knowing anything about human relationships. And people do not act like they are stupid teenagers who don't dare giving a kiss... It is not corny mainly because most of the movie is about reconstructing a past love just to know the ID of that girl, nothing more. And the present love slowly emerges from that, and when we become aware of that, other problems rise... Overall, if it is not very surprising (still a little bit), it is still very pleasant because the way it is done and very charming mostly because of the actors I must admit. Charming enough to fight the sleepiness caused by the jetlag... How many movies can do that for you ?
Review of Over the Rainbow
