One Fine Spring Day (2001) User Reviews

3 stars

[mweston · 7/10 · 14 May 2002]

This isn't a film about plot, so I'll concentrate on describing the main characters. Sang-Woo is a single sound engineer living with his family. Eun-su is a radio show host who lives about 4 hours away, by herself in a small, somewhat messy apartment. They meet to record the sound of wind in a bamboo forest for her radio show, and a relationship develops between them. The film observes them over the course of the changing seasons in Korea, starting in the Spring both in terms of the calendar and their relationship.

The pace is deliberate, and the characters don't really change much, but the film is beautiful and, not surprisingly, lovely to listen to, and it's definitely worth seeing. I think that the male lead (Ji-tae Yu) is particularly good in his role. My understanding is that the film won the top prize at Korea's equivalent to the Academy Awards.

I saw this at the San Francisco International Film Festival on 4/21/2002, where an earlier showing was the U.S. premiere. The director was present to answer questions, through an interpreter, and one of his responses indicated that viewers who are more experienced in love tend to identify with the female lead, while those less experienced see themselves in the male character.

One Fine Spring Day

[oggsmoggs · 8/10 · 2 December 2005]

Although I didn't like April Snow, I have to admit that I got curious about it's clinical, meditative, and almost Ozu-like approach to start searching out its director's previous films. One Fine Spring Day is Hur Jin-Ho's second feature film. Surprisingly though, the film feels like it's been crafted by a master who's been making films for decades. One Fine Spring Day evokes a certain sense of maturity and control that deflects the low points of its spare plot. Sang-woo (Yu Ji-tae) is a sound engineer who lives with his father and his senile grandmother. He gets a job to record certain sounds of nature with beautiful radio DJ Eun-su (Lee Young-ae). Sang-woo, who seems to be an extrovert and Eun-su, who is more outgoing and openminded, get along very well and start a relationship. Their relationship, however, is not the type that would last forever as both characters are very different and both have issues that need to be resolved. Those seeking something that will provide for a fuzzy joyous romantic feeling would easily get disappointed with One Fine Spring Day. One Fine Spring Day, despite its rather light atmosphere, holds a bittersweet conclusion that feels all too real for comfort. It matches the joys of falling in love with the pangs of an unexplained break up. The beauty of the film doesn't emanate from the plot, or the characterizations, or even the technical merits, but from Hur's surehanded direction that never seems to stray from its melancholic tone. Hur doesn't waste time in dealing with heartwarming moments or scenes of melodramatic intensity. He satisfies himself with sincere moments of silence that somehow evoke great emotional weight. One Fine Spring Day is a lovely film. I loved the fact that it never breaks into serious drama or comedy. It stays right there, comfortable in the middle, chronicling in a very sure manner the failing relationship of the couple. It's very different from April Snow which I thought tried too hard to build up its setup with a more ominous atmosphere that bogs down whatever talent and effort Hur and the rest of his crew put in entirely.

Love or not to love... u'll know after this film or review

[PanTonowicZ · 8/10 · 23 October 2011]

Its not about plot, not about twist nor about something unbelievable. This is a film that concentrate on characters and their different points of view. Dialogues are very modest in expression. Director uses rather non-verbal communication. Shy look there, insecure touch there or actions that tells us more then words. All that accompanied by great cinematography complemented by sensual music or sounds of bamboo. Audience can enjoy that thanks to slow storytelling and long pauses filled with body language. Back to the story. Jin-ho Hur tells a story about 2 individuals and their evolving relationship. Sang-woo is a young sound technician inexperienced with strong feelings. He meets Eun-so recently divorced radio announcer. Director shows the beginning of their relationship with creating overwhelming atmosphere of excitement and happiness that even spreads on the audience.

**Spoiler Alert**

However just like in life at some moment everything starts to go wrong. Director don't give us clear answer what is going on because just as it happens in those situations you can only insinuate. From this point everyone starts to cheer only for one of the main characters. Those less experienced by love go with Sang-woo. Those that tasted ups and downs of loving stand with Eun-so no matter which sex they're representing. Ending is perfectly directed. As Eun-so and Sang-woo meet up after some time she puts him again at crossroads. As he declined its clear that he finally made peace with it. As she goes away we can clearly see his hesitation. In this moment thanks to film shot without depth of field her going away is like fading of a memory. ** End of Spoilers**

As i mentioned before great cinematography is accompanied by amazing music and that builds great background to the story. However at some point this omnipresent music started to get on my nerves. I just think there is a little bit too much of it. As someone before me noted the easiest way to describe this film is to quote Alfred Lord Tennyson: "Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all"

Relationships (Spoilers)

[aglobalcitizen · 7 August 2010]

I will not go into the details of the plot, but will make an attempt to explain the relationships between the two main characters.

A divorced woman, who lives alone in her messy city apartment and occasionally drinks herself to sleep meets a guy by starting a new sound recording project. They were assigned to be a team, and slowly but surely their mutual attraction develops. The woman feels lonely and she takes it to a new level when she invites him to spend a night at her apartment. The guy has never had any serious relationships before. This is his first love. Before meeting her he leads a simple yet happy life with his dad and his grandma. His aunt occasionally visits the family to take care of the grandma who is slowly losing her memory. The guy is loved by his family and he loves them back. Later we learn that he lost his mom at an early age.

Their relationships blossoms. The woman enjoys his company because he makes her life more orderly by bringing kimchi and making ramen noodles. Without him her sleeping patterns are completely messed up and she feels lonely. The guy enjoys making her happy, he practically glows with happiness (his co-workers and family started to notice) and would like to get serious about their future as a family. The woman insists on secrecy. She mentions that the guy may lose his job if somebody finds out about their affair. The guy is ready to give up his job in order to keep her - this is how serious he is. In reality, his sudden request to see his father scares her. She did not expect that he would get so serious about it so soon. She does not feel right about the relationship. She understands what a great guy he is but feels inadequate since she has already been divorced. Being torn from her desire to be with him and her guilt of being in a wrong relationship, she suggests to spend a month apart. When this does not work, she tells hims she wants to break up with him. She even starts a new (continues her old?) relationship to forget him.

As with any person whose true love was rejected, he suffers a great deal and becomes almost a stalker. We do not see the tormented feeling the woman goes through, but we see the agony of the guy. He spends a night in a parking lot next to her apartment building, follows her to her friend's house and even goes as far as keying her lime green car. He is ready to give up his job for her, yet he does not get it: why did she leave him? His family and friends are very supportive of him. Then his grandmother dies.

The woman calls him back. She wants to see him again.

He comes to meet her, but when she mentions that she would like to continue their relationships, he rejects her. You can see that he still loves her, because this decision does not come easy to him. He has to make an enormous effort not to follow her when she walks away.

You can also see that the woman loves him too. When she turns around and sees him standing, she could have come back and make him start over. But she finds the inner strength and empathy to let him go because she was not sure that she was the right person who could make him happy.

not so excellent as the CHRISTMAS IN AUGUST

[ectype · 6/10 · 5 July 2002]

A friend once told me that the only thing you can never possess forever is love. If you saw this film, you would vaguely be aware of the idea.but i think the film should be shortened to less than 100 minutes. There are quite a few plots that would make you sleepy all the times. Also, the natural scenes in the film certainly defy my description and it was a pity that the director had not focused attention enough on these things.

A moving film that is visually subtle and communicative.

[amateuretymologist · 10/10 · 27 August 2002]

I watched this movie with no expectations and was brought on a roller coaster ride of emotions. All the highs and lows of love are here and presented through visually emotional camera work as well low-key yet powerful acting. When I'd finished watching, there was a gut-wrenching feeling in me that lingered for days. There is little dialogue in this film. Yet it speaks volumes because of the performances of Lee Young-Ae and Yu Ji-Tae. Each look, each gesture, each simple touch said more than a thousand words. If you want a genuine portrayal of a love affair from its beginning to its end, then watch this.

Alireza.Akhlaghi.Official

[alireza-akhlaghi84 · 7/10 · 25 September 2018]

You might expect that this movie, like all the other common consumer movies, that would be like stereotypical features, but that's not the case. Always the audience makes a general definition of the melodrama genre in his mentality, and in front of his default, he is directed to a film that is not far from its presuppositions. But the creation of a romantic film that can literally deal with the petitions of an emotional relationship is praiseworthy. Joining and separating two verbs is an inseparable part of relationship in the cinema, but setting to these two is not attractive alone. Romance movie needs some kind of subject writing. In this context, it is a more successful film that set to detail. I saw a good spring day movie on a good spring day, the first day of the spring of 2018. Without exaggeration, the other romantic films I had seen, was in far space. The culmination of the story is a fascinating reminder of a collapsing and annihilating relationship in which both conflict different behaviors in spite of their psychological and internal reaction, despite the emotion they are involved with. The point to be considered here is that the problem that originally causes conflict and heterogeneity in their relationship is precisely where the one is willing to agree, and the other does not want to, and this position is changing. Eventually, in the end of our film, we face an approach that is not happy end at all and confirm the signature of the modern structure of the film. This movie should be seen because of its state of affairs and suitable for today.

Very good film, excellent cinematography

[mcw1138 · 10/10 · 16 February 2005]

I saw this film at the 2002 San Francisco International film festival and it was, by far, the best film of the ten I saw. Some of the others were so bad, that if it hadn't been for this one film, I would have considered my ten ticket pass to be a waste of time (if not money).

This is a romantic film with a very cute and unique story line that alone, would make it worth seeing. But the sound editing and the cinematography really put it over the top in my opinion. One sound and visual sequence in a bamboo forest will stand out in my memory forever.

Unfortunately, for those of us who would love to see it again, or those who have never seen it, this film did not get released in the US and is not available on DVD or video.

"I needed that"

[chengt · 9/10 · 29 September 2005]

When I finished watching this film, I was reminded of what poet Lord Tennyson said about love: 'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.

And I agree with others who have commented here on the film that it s only if you have loved and had been loved that you fully appreciate the film.

One aspect of the film that I found most interesting was that Eun-su (Lee Yoeng-Ae) and Sang-woo (Jit-taeYue) met and fell in love because of sound but yet the acting was mostly silent. A simple gesture or a grimace here and there conveyed with clarity the powerful emotions and inner turmoil of these two main characters.

I am grateful that I saw the film. It was so refreshing and so different that it was sort of a catharsis and I actually said to myself, "I needed that" when it was over.

A film of quiet power

[howard.schumann · 9/10 · 12 January 2008]

Although Alfred Lord Tennyson said, "Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all", anyone who has endured the breakup of an intense relationship would not necessarily agree. Certainly not Lee Sang-woo, the young sound engineer from Seoul, Korea in Hur Jin-ho's exquisite second feature One Fine Spring Day (literally Spring day goes). In the film of quiet power, two young people meet, fall in love, then gradually pull back and withdraw, but the film is not about their circumstances, but about the impermanence of life and how we must learn to ride the roller coaster. Like Hur's 1998 film Christmas in August, it is a realistic and intimate work, filled with a touching lyricism that never succumbs to manipulative devices.

Working to record sounds of nature for a radio station, Sang-woo and radio disc jockey Han Eun-su meet at a bus station in a most unusual way. Unable to wake her from a bench in the waiting room, he calls her on his cell phone even though she is sitting right next to him. As they work together, their relationship develops slowly. She has recently been divorced and he lives at home with his father, aunt, and grandmother. The joy of discovering a new relationship is conveyed against a background of nature – its mountains, forests, and streams and, as we listen to the two recording the sound of the wind against the bamboo and the wheat fields, we are struck by the mood of serenity created by the cinematography of Kim Hyeong-gyu and the original music of Jo Sung-woo, based on the French ballad, "Plaisir D'amour".

Impermanence is a constant theme in the film and the seasons represent various stages in the character's relationship. To underscore the fleeting nature of love, Sang-woo's grandmother denies that her deceased husband was ever unfaithful to her and, barely in touch with reality, goes to the train station everyday to wait for him. Though Eun-su lives in the provinces, she and Sang-woo begin to meet each other after work and spend some nights together. On the surface, they are an attractive couple - warm, sensitive, and very cute together. But Hur drops hints that each, in their own way is eager to pull away from what looks like it might become a lasting relationship. Though the reason for their growing coolness toward each other is not specifically defined, she may be reacting to the fallout from her last marriage or may be put off by his tendency to cling. In his first real relationship, he may be having thoughts that it is too soon to close off other possibilities in life.

Neither, however, communicates their fears and, like a flower that is not being nurtured, their relationship is allowed to wither. As she withdraws, he pursues her even more, giving her the upper hand and placing her in a controlling position and Sang-woo is run by his expectations and disappointment, drinking and hiding out when things start to turn sour. In "One Fine Spring Day", we learn that, as in the Buddhist tradition, life has the characteristics of instantaneity, impermanence, and decay and that the three realms are deceptive and illusory in nature. We share Sang-woo's discovery of the joy of love and also its confusion and pain. Literally, not too much happens in the film, and, on paper it sounds ordinary, but, like the poetry of Walt Whitman, if we look beneath the surface we can easily see the divine in the commonplace.

Technically good but personally story is frustrating

[sneharaj · 1/10 · 23 August 2022]

I am not an expert in film making. I can tell about the plot which is simple yet frustrating. Female lead is not easily understood. The male lead is kind of stupid to go after her again and again.

Masterful filmmaking

[freakus · 10/10 · 22 April 2002]

This is another very quiet film by Hur about the relationship between two people. Like "Christmas in August" the direction is such that excessive dialogue is unnecessary. We know what the two people involved are thinking at all times through their eyes, the way the look (or don't look) at each other.

It's a story that anyone who has had any experience in love will immediately recognize and get that "I have been there" feeling. The film doesn't sympathize with one person or the other but you probably will empathize with one of them based on your own experiences in love and loss. Two people fall in love, one of them falls out of love (or does she?), is anyone to blame?

keep passing each other

[KeisukeY · 3 August 2003]

From the very beginning, this film reminds me of a Japanese filmmaker Ozu. Well, there are few lines for characters and little music, they exchange their feeling by their facial expression. The film has a stereoscope effect owing to describe the vast nature image. It is all the more interesting that the subtle movement of love is contrasted with that immense spring nature.

I guess the impression of this film is dependent on each person because the film leaves room for thinking more deeply about their relationship and their character. Superficially, Eun-su looks a little wicked since she leaves him suddenly, but I think there is something about her. She was divorced once and she may need someone to rely on. Also, Sang-woo lost his mother and is seeking for maternity in Eun-su. Both want someone to depend on but what they want in their partner is different. So they keep passing each other.

Like August in Christmas(the previous film of Jin-ho Hur), their love is one way. Namely, an young pure innocent person loves an elder person. And the elder one leaves him or her at the end. The film makes me wonder how and what the young learn through love. Do you think he can recover from the loss?

Beautiful haunting love story

[mcw1139 · 10/10 · 15 June 2007]

I saw this film at the San Francisco film festival several years ago. I had a ten film pass and this ONE film made sitting through some of the other very boring, tedious films worth the price of the ten pass ticket (note: I am an avid foreign and independent film person). The cinematography, film score, editing and acting are superb. I still have the one of the films amazing images - a bamboo forest waving in the winds engraved in my memory.

I hoped to see it on the independent and film circuit after the film festival, so that I could let others know to go see it .... but it never showed up. I have found it for sale online but not with and English subtitle. I hope, that eventually, the films distributors, either release it for a US theatrical run or put out an English dubbed version so that I can but it.

I've got two words for you, "see it!"

[levertyum · 9/10 · 11 October 2001]

This is Damn Good Drama !!!

There is no talk about this movie, you know why? I won't let you know. If you want to know what it is. You have to see it for yourself.

then you love this movie!