By Joon Soh
Culture Editor
Given all the hype surrounding
Bae Yong-joon, it would be easy to assume that the new movie "
April Snow" would be nothing more than a lightweight cinematic vehicle for the mega-popular actor. After all, Bae even sports the shaggy-haircut-and-glasses look that's suspiciously similar to his fashion sensibilities in "
Winter Sonata", the TV melodrama that made housewives all over Asia swoon and propelled the actor into superstardom.
But once one looks past the (probably intentional) evidences of Bae's commercial appeal, he or she will find a film that's surprisingly complex and vastly different from the cardboard sentimentality of "
Winter Sonata". Within the first half hour, it becomes plain that it's director
Heo Jin-ho, not Bae, ...
MoreLove, betrayal and guilt are some of the feelings movies are particularly adept at conjuring, but things get tricky when the three elements are lumped together solely for one big star. How do you evoke the inner life of a deeply troubled man and his equally distressed, secret lover when what the audiences want is just an innocent smile of the star actor?
"
April Snow", directed by
Heo Jin-ho, adopts the same melodrama formula of "
Winter Sonata", a runaway television hit series that touched off the boom for Korean pop culture, and, more importantly, catapulted actor
Bae Yong-joon into almost mythical fame in Asia.
The original Korean title of the movie is "Oechul", roughly translating into "Outing". Its English title "
April Snow", however, is much more closely related to the movie's core idea. In Korea, it's quite rare to see snow falling in April, so the title suggests a hopeful message that something miraculous might soothe an ill-fated couple and consummate their
Forbidden Love.
The movie starts with In-su (
Bae Yong-joon) heading for Samcheok, a seaside city on the east coast in Korea, upon hearing the news of ...
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