The Fair Love
Hyung-man is in his fifties and has regrettably never dated. After having lost all his money to a close friend, Hyung-man spends his monotonous and frustrating life in his photo studio. One day, Hyung-man decides to pay his fraudulent friend, Ki-hyuk, a visit, after having heard that he is dying of cancer. Ki-hyuk requests that Hyung-man look after his daughter, Nam-eun, once in a while after he dies. After Ki-yuk passes away, Hyung-man decides to visit his friend’s daughter, who is surprisingly a full-grown lady. Noticing that Nam-eun is more distressed over the death of her pet cat than her father’s, Hyung-man decides to look after her once in a while. Nam-eun too finds her father’s silly and unmarried friend quite interesting. Using Hyung-man’s dirty laundry as an excuse, Nam-eun frequently visits Hyung-man, gradually expressing her feelings for him. Although awkward and surprised at first, Hyung-man too is curious about his feelings for his friend’s daughter. Soon, Hyung-man who was once simply Nam-eun’s father’s friend becomes her man and they begin a series of unusual dates.
The film’s first half is particularly memorable, when it introduces us to the characters and the everyday spaces they inhabit. There is something about the camera repair shop — its myriad tools and objects, and the interactions between the people who work or hang out there — that is quietly fascinating. There’s something that draws you in to Nam-eun’s home as well, as empty and ordinary as it is. Most of all, it is the scenes when Hyung-man and Nam-eun are getting to know each other that stick in the mind. There is a subtle energy and tension between these two characters that many melodramas try, and fail, to create. Lee Ha-na’s performance, and some well-written dialogue, deserve much of the credit.
The second half presents more of a narrative challenge. What at first strikes us as an unconventional or bizarre coupling eventually comes across as ordinary, as we get to know the two of them better and adopt their perspective. Hyung-man starts to feel and even act like a teenager in love (exhilarating for him, awkward for the viewer). But ultimately they are a couple like any other. The Fair Love retains a realist perspective as it moves towards its conclusion, but the film itself, which felt so fresh in the opening reels, ends on a more conventional note.
source form: koreanfilm
