Weepies, part 2 - Love Phobia

Love Phobia is a recent 2006 romance film that stars Cho Seung-woo (Jo-kang) and Kang Hae-jung (Ari), as lovers whose relationship spans the years as Ari appears and disappears from Jo-kang's life. It starts when they are children, and they meet on Ari's first day at school, dressed in a raincoat, which attracts attention since it is a sunny day. She relates to her classmates that the raincoat is necessary because she is cursed -- anyone who touches her has an accident, or gets sick, or some misfortune. This scares all but one classmate, Jo-kang, mainly because she is his seatmate, and this begins their friendship. She has a pet lizard which scares the bejeezus out of the teacher, and during one of their walks, loses it and it goes into the marsh. Jo-kang dives in to find it, and it begins to rain. It is never found. The two sit under shelter, and huddle under the raincoat. Ari falls for him, but when the next day Jo-kang comes down with the measles, Ari never comes back to school. Ten years later, Jo-kang is studying for exams, and unexpectedly receives a message from Ari, telling him to come and meet him at the temple, where she has been living all this time, with her uncle, who is a priest. After some comedic miscommunication, they meet, and live together in the temple, studying and playing with one another. During this time they fall in love, but when after they kiss, Jo-kang becomes ill with the flu, and Ari disappears once again. Eight years later, Jo-kang is working at a bank (fulfilling a dream they both shared, where he would work at a bank, they would rob it and use the money to fly off in a Russian spacecraft). His coworker thinks that he needs to move on and date some women, but Ari shows up one day. They have a long, wonderful time together, but Ari breaks the news that she is off to the United States the following day, which devestates Jo-kang. Also she has this belief that she will be picked up by a UFO, and be relieved of her curse -- that bring outs a big huh? from Jo-kang. They separate, but while visiting his injured coworker in the hospital, spots Ari as a patient. It turns out that her parents were killed in a car accident, and while being treated for injuries, received an infected blood transfusion -- AIDS. Her uncle broke the news to her in a way a child could understand, which was the reason for the raincoat, and the aliens, as that became symbolic for hope for a cure, however fantastic. Ari is a photographer who is having a show in a gallery, filled with pictures of her past and the temple where she lived. Jo-kang and Ari meet up again, to spend final times together while she is slowly dying. He even makes a crop circle to call on the UFOs as she is seemingly about to pass away, but given photographs of him, she recovers enough to go with him to see the circles. They confess their love for each other, she apologizes to him for everything, then a bright light comes and carries her away. He spends his life working at a sushi bar (Ari loved sushi), never to forget her.

The conceit of the movie is that Cho Seung-woo and Kang Hae-jung are romantically linked in real life. Their chemistry is carries the movie, which storywise is a cliche of a romance of a man in love with a dying woman. The reasons for her strange behavior are clever. I just wish the disease wasn't AIDS -- too extreme or too dramatic. I also think they could have played up the fantasy vs reality even more -- Ari's lies were developed from her uncle's white lies, to protect her. As she matured she understood the seriousness of her condition. Yet in dealing with her feelings for J0-kang, she reverted to using those lies. Jo-kang initially scoffed at her excuses, but grew to believe in them as his love for her grew, because of his desire for them to be together once and for all. The ending, where the lovers are in the field, saying their final goodbye, is heartwrenching. The ray of light is unexpected and I'm not sure necessary. I mean it could be symbolic of her passing away, or the end to their relationship, but to think that she was picked up by a UFO upsets the tone of the entire movie. Whatever. This is a notch above the standard Korean romance film, and it is a credit to the director and the main leads, though I'll take a police procedural or horror flic any day. But I did shed a tear. Recommended for those with lonely hearts, or Korean film buffs.