Dal-lyeo-la ja-jeon-geo (2008) User Reviews

Good but cliché

[rainisfallingfromthesky · 6/10 · 23 May 2009]

Lim Hajeong, her family torn apart by alcoholism, moves to a new town to begin a new life in college. She develops a fancy for Kim Soowook, who is indifferent at first but soon warms up to her. He becomes her friend and helps her to deal with the issues of her family. However, he has a past which may prevent them from being together.

This movie is cute and well-acted, but it has all the elements for a cliché Korean movie drama. The crazy girl who plays a trick on her becomes her best friend. The boy is a callous loner, but underneath he he has a gentle spirit. There is nothing in this movie which sets it apart from all the other formula romances. I think it is a good movie, but there is nothing about it which makes it memorable.

It's not bad but... probably won't watch it again.

[jdriselvato · 4/10 · 24 May 2021]

I first got into k-drama / k-movies around 2008 and I was looking at a list of movies from that time period again (13 years later). I thought the main actress was pretty so gave it a chance.

The story is pretty slice of life. Not much conflict or if it is, they don't make it seem like a big deal.

Like we know about the bookstore workers girlfriend but they don't build on that relationship well enough to make her death tragic. I mean, he learned about it from a text. There was barely an emotion either.

Then the two never saw each other again after that... I guess? Was the ending trying to say the main character is traveling all over the world or because Snow Queen won, the two of them got to live out their dream.

We know about the mother but everyone hated her or at least the feeling was they're glad she isn't around any more. I guess?

And the confusion above is how I felt about a lot of the plot points. The brother who ran away. The other brother who wore a beanie all the time (unless he was sleep walking) which I thought for a second was the older brother who ran away because the younger brother always had his beanie covering half his face.

Then the troublesome friend from college, she showed up like 4 times yet they introduced her like she was going to be this main character. She did drive a lot of the story but by force not because she was a flushed out character.

Also the last scene of the movie, when did the younger brother go into the army? Again, I thought for a second it was the older brother returning. They put so much emphasis on the older brother yet we never saw him.

That's actually how a lot of this film is. Everything is talked about but not experienced with action. It's too dialogue driven and not enough substance.

I was hoping for another love story like Hello Schoolgirl but instead got a weird confused crush story with and ending that was not satisfying at all.