Lover's Concerto

Lover’s Concerto starts out as a passable romantic comedy before taking an abrupt nosedive into the medical drama genre. It literally became a Hallmark movie of the week at some point, rife with sentimental music and photo montages with the Ken Burns effect, which disrupted the flow of the story and cheapened the whole thing. The synopsis sounds like a Korean Jules and Jim with the genders reversed, but that isn’t the case. Thank goodness for the actors though. They’re the sole reason I wanted to see this in the first place anyway.

The beginning is a simple romance about a young man who befriends and falls in love with two college girls. So far so good, and this cast is pretty nice. Funny man Cha Tae-hyun of My Sassy Girl fame stars in the lead role. I was surprised to see him bust out some serious acting chops here. Too bad his character is the weakest of the trio, kind of forgettable and boring compared to the girls who are much more interesting.

Son Ye-jin plays the quiet, modest friend who stole Cha Tae-hyun’s heart from the moment he laid his eyes on her. Son Ye-jin is plain awesome. I’ve seen almost all her movies and she can do no wrong. She makes a very bad film tolerable. Finally, there’s the late, great Lee Eun-ju (who starred in my favorite Korean film ever, Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors). Here she’s the complete opposite of Son Ye-jin. She plays the energetic, tomboyish type with a lot of attitude, automatically making her the best character. Lee Eun-ju is the heart and soul of this entire movie and every time she’s not on screen the film becomes a bit duller.

It’s unfortunate that the director had to resort to cheap sentimentality by introducing an egregious twist along the way. It’s so cliched, so ham-fisted in its approach. The cheery tone of the first half is totally gone by the end. If anything, Lover’s Concerto made me want to see more of Lee Eun-ju. This is recommended only for fans of the actors. For everyone else, there are better Korean dramas out there.