Almost Love (Movie - 2006)

J

i Hwan and Dal Rae have been friends since childhood. And as is natural for two people who have been friends that long, there's an unexplained closeness and comfortableness between the two. It's the kind of intimacy and coziness that blind them to the truth - that the two of them are in love and must have been since childhood, a truth that is obvious to others except to the people that matter: Ji Hwan and Dal Rae. Their light bickering, which is but normal for friends, suddenly turn into nasty arguments when both decide to date other people. This conflict in their relationship make them evaluate why each is bothered by the other seeing someone else.

A tragedy strikes and Ji Hwan loses his leg. Distressed by this unfortunate accident, he disappears from home and cuts all communication with everyone he left behind, including Dal Rae. After a year of soul searching, so to speak, he comes home, bearing a screenplay he wrote. This screenplay falls into the hands of Dal Rae. Will this revelation of Ji Hwan's feelings now cost him their friendship?

This movie reunites Kwon Sang Woo and Kim Ha Neul, stars of my favorite movie, My Tutor Friend. Expectations are high, therefore, that this movie will equal, if not surpass, the former. I was a bit disappointed, though. It's a beautiful story in itself, and I find no fault in the actors, but overall, the movie came out rather short in delivering the goods. There was probably too much, or maybe too little, of everything that I don't quite know what to make of it.

The dynamic slapstick blended well with the trips down memory lane but it gave way much too early to the melodrama, which, in my honest opinion, need not have been there. Or maybe it should have been.

I really don't know what to say with this movie except that I feel it should be perfect, but there's a flaw somewhere, somehow.

7 kimchi dishes out of 10.

*also on www.yesasia.com