영화 - 가을로

Kim Hyeon Cheol(김현철), who sang the soundtrack "Must Say Goodbye" in Il Mare, is back again. He has just released a duet with Gummy(거미) "우리 이제 어떻게 하나요?" (What should we do now?) for the Korean movie "Traces of Love"(가을로-literal translation "Into the Autumn").



"Traces of Love" premiered at the 11th Pusan International Film Festival on October 12 and is slated for nationwide release in Korea this weekend. On the first look, I thought it is just another run-of-the-mill Korean melodrama but as I read on, I was captivated by the storyline.

The movie is supposed to begin with the male lead, Hyeon-Wu acted by Yu Ji Tae(유지태), losing his fiancee, Min-Ju acted by Kim Ji Su(김지수), to a disaster which is an re-enactment of the collapse of the Sampung Department Store(삼풍박화전) on the fateful day of June 29, 1995. The Sampung disaster ended with 502 lives lost and about 900 people wounded.

[Picture from <가을로> Official Website]

Love stopped for Hyeon-Wu on the day of collapse. For the next 10 years, he has to contend with living his life in sorrow. His reprieve came when Min-Ju's father handed him the long-lost diary written by Min-Ju.

In the diary, Min-Ju meticulously recorded those scenic spots she had travelled to with the intention to re-visit them on her honeymoon. The diary came with detailed travel routes, maps, comments, anecdotes and stories associated with those forests, temples and villages she had visited.

Based on travel routes scripted in the diary, Hyeon-Wu went on a journey to re-track in traces the love he had lost. Coincidentally, Hyeon-Wu kept meeting Se-Jin, acted by Eon Ji Won(언지원), in those places mentioned in Min-Ju's diary. Se-Jin almost became a real-life double for Min-Ju. The appearance of Se-Jin in Hyeon-Wu's life created a dilemma for him. He had a choice to either continue loving his lost love or lived up to reality and love someone else.

The emotional struggle between living in the past and leaving sorrow behind to carry on with one's life will likely to struck a chord with many people. Singapore also has its own share of similar disaster as in the collapse of the Hotel New World. Dust may have long settled but we will never know or feel the sorrow of those people who have lost their loves to the disaster.

Love is painful not because it has ended but because it continues.