Sseo-ni (2011) Reviews

• simply great

  susahnyarinama2011-11-02

  Or can I call it a great movie because its simplicity. Some may think this movie just a fairytale. But the fairytale was capture everybody's heart (yeah well, most of everybody). For me this movie had it all (drama, romance, comedy, even.. action!), all in a certain proportion that made me really sunk to the story. The simple character, may we encountered in our everyday life or in our past or even in ourselves, (i think) really made the audiences to stay watching and enjoy the plot. The nostalgic feeling really strong in a good way, so we can enjoy the movie more because we were remembering our own happy memory especially with our friends. Simple movie like this is what we need and what we can call great. Simple story can become a hit is something. I may sound overly sentimental in this review, but that's how this movie made me, Hope ya'll enjoy it like I did :D

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• Move Thee Reviews: A Love Letter to Oneself

  ken18482012-04-14

  Last year witnessed a huge success of a Taiwanese movie, You Are the Apple of My Eye, at the box office. If you feel like a Korean female version, don't miss Sunny, a hilarious, but sometimes poignant coming-of-age story about middle age crisis and the ups and downs experienced during adolescence, for example, puppy love, friendship, family, bullying, dreams, etc. Sunny is a love letter to oneself which reminds me of Rene Liu's song 繼續給十五歲的自己. There are at least two scenes which play upon the audience's heartstrings. First, the teenage girls talk to their future selves about their dreams in front of a video camera, which cruelly reminds Na-Mi in the present of the wreckage of their dreams destroyed by reality. Second, Na-Mi puts a consoling arm around her teenage self around her shoulders, which symbolically implies her letting go. Thanks to the right pacing and skillful editing interweaving the present with the past, the reality with the illusion, they are definitely two of the most touching scenes of the year. After watching the movie, you won't help asking yourself if you have forgotten about your dreams. The songs used add a sense of nostalgia to the movie. The most powerful one is Reality by Richard Sanderson. Please note the slightly different uses of the song in several scenes throughout the movie. Thanks to this romantic song, the scenes echo with one another, highlighting the protagonist's unrequited love for the boy, her piercing sadness when she sees the boy using the same strategy to impress her female friend, as well as her regret about not having given him the portrait and told him how she feels. For your information, the scenes in which the boy stealthily helps the girls wear his headphones playing Reality are indeed a tribute to Claude Pinoteau's La boum, a movie released in 1980 about the first love experiences of a teenage girl. The movie, which runs two hours plus, is slightly too long, despite the director's understandable attempt to develop a large number of characters. As for the dancing scene at the end of the movie, albeit slightly overlong, it is necessary as it shows their genuine bond of friendship after 25 years since graduation. Also, the ending seems contrived and sugary, whereas the minor flaws previously mentioned can be offset by its charismatic cast, well developed characters and the nostalgic setting. There is a trace of irony when the protagonist's mother grumbles about the clichéd Korean soap operas twice. Nevertheless, the director also reminds us that life is like a film and it is not uncommon that people around us can be struck down by cancer anytime. Being strongly reminiscent of our bitter-sweet and silly memories during adolescence, Sunny reminds us to live life to the full so as not to have regrets.

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• thinking of my friends and days of the past

  sjy-sujeong2012-04-22

  I knew that this kind of movie, with people reminiscing about the old days and the deep meaning of friendship, if well carried out, be a big hit. So it was with Sunny. My friends saw it first and told me how much it got them to thinking of our own school days and how much they missed being together. This movie made me tear up all the way through and really reminded me of my own special friends who I can't see very often now, being far away from home, and also my school days. We used to run around and dance like the characters of Sunny, and laugh louder than we can now. In those days, I think the value of friendship was so different, since we spent so much time together, my relationship with friends were mostly all that mattered. Now, as we grow older, we might believe that friendship is getting deeper, as much as the years gone by, but with our own separate careers and busy lives, we have to but understand how we are growing distant from each other and we must learn to be adults and just accept that. Most importantly, I think this movie teaches us the way to be a friend. What it means to be a true friend, something that is too easily forgotten nowadays. It is true that it's hard to keep up with each other during stressful and busy times, especially when we are all at different levels and stages in life, facing different problems; could be financial, business, family etc issues, things that we could not imagine during our school days, but, as with one of the sayings in the movie, we should keep an eye on our friends at all times. If they need help, we should give it to them till they become alright. Because if we don't, who can? That is the privilege of being a friend. This movie is definitely a must-see. I want my mum to see it too but I'm afraid she will feel sad, more so than me, and I can also imagine that when my other friends see this, they will probably be reminded of the same things that I was reminded of. It was just such a beautifully made film.

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• Depends...

  hlp2152012-04-01

  South Korean screen writers and directors have a great quality: Their ability to jerk tears and tuck heart strings. Sseo-ni is one of those movies with such director and screen writer. This movie is not meant for audience under a certain age. It is not because the content is not suitable for a young audience. You need to have experiences and memories in order to get the nostalgia. In the movie, present time indicates the 25-year reunion, so that put girls in their teenage years in 1987. While the audience does not have to be people in their 40's, the story does need an audience that's been out of high school for about 5-10 years, weathered by life a little, knows what it means to lose one's innocence, and how desperately one wants to catch a glimpse of that innocence one used to have. So for the reviewers who thinks the movie is all hype, I suggest to re-watch it in a few years. This movie will be a timeless classic.

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• The Movie That Could

  misterkevinoh2013-03-21

  I think it's a rare thing for the Korean Film industry to come out with a movie that depicts Korean girls as care-free as they are (in "Sunny), and that same movie to become extremely successful. What I mean is that the ideal Korean girl is quiet, innocent, and practices proper etiquette at ALL times. But the girls in "Sunny" are anything BUT those things. Yes, it's true that the movie may not have an over-arching "thesis", but this isn't that kind of film. This is a movie that is absolutely in love with it's story and characters, where the majority of the film is spent building this friendship, and putting that friendship through trials. It may not have the noir, pessimistic tone of most popular Korean films, but it's nice to have a movie with a happy ending. Because although happy endings may not be gritty or realistic, it's definitely worth it when you whether the trials and all the whistle-dicks that get in the way when you do it with the company of those you care about. And if anything, maybe that's what "Sunny" is about. (On a side note, the movie is beautifully shot, has excellent writing, beautiful sets, staging, acting... it's really just a beautiful movie. Cinephiles, eat your heart out. I daresay it's kind of like the Breakfast Club of Korea in the sense of all that youthful angst. It's just a piece of fun cinema that really resonates with that heart- warming-goo)

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