Pairing together two of the nation's biggest young talents in a romantic tearjerker is never a bad box-office move. The new film "Nae Morisokui Chiugae (A Moment to Remember)" does just that, placing actor Jung Woo-sung and actress Son Ye-jin in a sadly beautiful story about a young woman who comes down with Alzheimer's at the tender age of 27.
Unfortunately, star power and an interesting premise is just not enough to make for an engaging feature-length film. And although director John H. Lee gives it his best effort to enliven "A Moment" with creative camerawork, the story in the end is little more than one you would find in the many local music videos for weepy ballads.
"A Moment" tells of the relationship between Su-jin (Son), a young woman who just broke off an affair with a married man, and Chol-su (Jung), a tough-as-nails loner who works as a carpenter for her father's construction company. The film does a fair job in portraying the couple's courtship, from their accidental meeting at a Family Mart convenience store to their perfect marriage.
The story then turns predictably tragic in the latter half as Alzheimer's hits young Su-jin, and there's not much else for the film and the audience to do but watch as the couple wallows in their exquisitely sad situation, which at once disassembles yet reconfirms their love. (It also gives the opportunity for Son to say the line, "There's an eraser in my head".) The loss-of-memory motif may be reminiscent of such recent films as "Memento" and "50 First Dates", but only in style, not substance. "A Moment" could have replaced Alzheimer's with cancer or any other equally devastating disease and would have been none the worse.
Saving the film from falling into complete absurdity, however, is the camerawork, which puts life into potentially empty scenes. At unexpected moments, the film mesmerizes the audience with sweeping and spinning shots, intelligent segues between scenes and inventive use of scenery.
Although Son's character doesn't stray from the numerous other cute and perky young women she has previously played, the actress still does an able job portraying a woman slowly losing her memory. However, Jung, who impressed in last year's "Ttongae (Mutt Boy)", gets stuck in a role that requires as much acting as his many television commercials.
"A Moment" may also remind viewers of television commercials through its shameless product endorsements. Although the film does a much better job integrating products into its story than, say, "Nae Yojachingurul Sogaehapnida (Windstruck)", viewers might still be put off by the overt commercialization, especially in the final moments of the film that really put "the family" in Family Mart.
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