My Girl And I

Foreword

This is Song Hye Gyo's debut movie and her first time pairing up with Cha Tae Hyun. It is a story about true love and happiness. Will everyone have a happy ending with their first love?

Story

A high school reunion is held in a small town. Su Ho's three friends are sure that he will not be around because he hasn't forgotten Bae Su Eun (Song Hae Gyo). Today is also her 10th year death anniversary. To their surprise, Su Ho arrives. After their meal, he breaks down as he recalls the past.

Ten years ago, Su Ho is rescued from drowning by Su Eun from the sea. Her pager is lost and she leaves before he wakes up. So Su Ho thinks his friends have saved him. Su Eun stares at him during a music lesson when he returns to school. She recognises him as the person she has saved. Su Ho becomes uneasy to avoid her stares. Su Ho's classmate thinks that she is interested in him and boasts about it. But in reality - no - she is interested in Su Ho.

Su Eun suddenly asks him to buy her bread. All think that the two are dating when they see them together. The captain of the Judo club confronts Su Ho. He claims that Su Eun is his gal and Su Ho can't touch her. Su Ho is frightened and says that he isn’t her boyfriend. To his dismay, Su Eun replies that they are indeed a couple. The captain gets mad and beats Su Ho up. By the time Su Ho's friends rescue him, he already has many bruises on his face.

Su Eun hints to Su Ho that she saves him the other day but he doesn't know what she is talking about. Su Eun asked him to get her a new pager as she lost the old one because of him. She gives him her old pager number. Although it is missing, she can still get messages sent to her.

The next day, Su Ho is informed during lesson time that his grandfather faints at home. He quickly returns home and finds him alright. The old man is simply too bored and just wants to share the story of his first love. Su Eun comes after school, bringing Su Ho's bag.

Being superstitious as she is at his undertaker shop, Su Ho's grandfather asks Su Eun to turn 18 rounds - which is her age to maintain her good luck. Su Ho's grandfather shares his story with them. Gathering from their expression, he knows that they are going steady now. He hopes that they have beter luck than him.

When young, Su Ho's grandfather was a soldier. He was assigned to another area and had to leave his first love, Soon-Im. After the war, he became an undertaker and had no news of her. One day, he was asked to prepare a funeral and the dead man was Soon-Im's husband. They couldn't say a word to each other any more as during those days widows were not allowed to talk to other men or remarry. He decided to forget her and married Su Ho's grandmother.

His first love is most precious to him as he still keeps Soon-Im's photo. Su Ho realizes that he loves Su Eun deeply too. So he hopes that they will not suffer the same fate as his grandfather. Su Ho leaves a message on her pager using a public phone. He hopes that she can be his in future. He is shocked when she is right behind him to answer yes. From then on, both officially become a couple and no one can break them up.

Soon, Su Ho's friends organise an overnight stay in Fog Island. The two see no one when they arrive. His friends have tricked him so that they can be alone. With no one around, they become daring to share their first kiss.

One day, Su Eun faints and needs to stay in hospital.She turns out to have leukemia and is going to die soon. Her one last wish is to go back to Fog Island to have their last moments there.

Meanwhile, Soon-Im also has the same wish to be together with Su Ho's grandfather. He prepares his own funeral and is buried with her instead of his wife. Although Su Ho feels that this is unfair to his grandmother, he still respects his wish. (I wonder if Soon-Im's family is also displeased over this but it isn't shown.)

Knowing that Su Eun is dying soon, Su Ho gets two ferry tickets, planning to set off. On the day of their departure, all trips are cancelled due to a typhoon. Su Ho fails to convince the staff to let them go. Su Eun dies in his arms peacefully without her wish granted. Su Ho lies in his grandfather's model casket and cries after handling her funeral. He takes over the undertaker job but opens the shop elsewhere to leave this town.

Ten years later, Su Ho returns to this town and also Fog Island. He finds Su Eun's lost bag. There is a diary in it. He reads it to discover that she has grown flowers on a hill so that she can come back with him to admire yearly after they grow from the seeds.

The flowers is her gift to him to show how life can be strong despite having a weak foundation. Su Ho quickly goes to the hill and is overjoyed to see it covered with flowers. The flowers are as beautiful as her, reminding him of their happy days together.

Interesting facts

It is a remake of the Japanese smash hit ‘Crying Out Love In The Centre Of the World’. Many places in Korea were filmed beautifully.

The two leads went to Malaysia to promote the movie. Singaporean fans were disappointed when they did not stop over at Singapore. Reporters were not satisfied with Hae Gyo’s distant way of handling questions. They described her as too impatient and looked as if she could not wait for the whole event to be over . They found Tae Hyun endearing as he listened attentively and tried his best to answer all questions.

Conclusion

Even only after watching it for 5 minutes on television, I know how it is going to end so I don’t have much anticipation left. The only special part is Su Eun takes the initiative to woo Su Ho. It is boring – very boring with the predictable ending. The director is only eating on the cast’s popularity and expects to create miracles at the box office. But sadly, no. It is just a repeat of Hae Gyo’s ‘Endless Love’. There isn’t any breakthrough in their acting either.

The stressing on unforgettable first love is too much. We have seen it in ‘Staircase to heaven’, “Winter Sonata’ or ‘Summer Scent’. The leads were happy for a while and later tragedy strikes. It’s becoming an overdose and I feel that I am watching an old Qiong Yao movie. It’s time for Korean directors to get over the past and move on with normal life! Can please stop creating tearjerkers for us?

We only marvel that the cast’s youthful looking images. They are so convincing in the high school uniform although they are no longer in their teens. Other than that, nothing special, nothing smart. It is just a lower than average movie. It is the same of watching a documentary that provides nice scenery.