Weepies, part 3 - Almost Love

I'll be blunt: Almost Love is a very, very silly movie. It stars Kwon Sang-Woo and Kim Ha-Neul, from a very popular comedy called My Tutor Friend. That film, while no masterpiece, was charming in its own way, and it had a plot. Here there is none. Almost two hours long, this rambling work strains to keep your attention by focusing on our stars, and their inevitable coming together as a couple. Kwon plays Lee Ji-Hwan, who since he was a boy was in love with action movies, and dreamed of following in Jackie Chan's footsteps. Other children stayed away from him, partly because of his interests, and partly because of his emulation of Jackie, right down to the ugly long bowl hairdo. Yikes! Kim plays Jin Dal-Rae, the one person who finds him interesting, and they become life long friends. Fast forward 15 years, and they are young adults, Lee Ji-Hwan a student of Tae Kwan Do, and Jin Dal-Rae an aspiring actress. She blows her auditions by being too nervous and self conscious, and Ji-Hwan does not help with his teasing, and it leads to some fighting. But their friendship is so deep that they make up afterwards. Dal-Rae has a boyfriend, Young-Hoon (played by Lee Sang-Woo), who is supportive but is well aware of the two's long history together. He is also Ji-Hwan's teammate, considered the best in the class. They have friendly competitions with one another, but Ji-Hwan always lets him win. They are all good friends and spend lots of time hanging out. Of course, time does test relationships, and Young-Hoon wants more attention from his girlfriend. Dal-Rae is clearly in love with Ji-Hwan, but is too proud to admit it, less to him than to herself. And Young-Hoon knows this.
There is some success -- Dal-Rae works herself into an audition, fails, then later succeeds by doing an impromptu performance on a bus, then in front of the director, and lands a part. Ji-Hwan becomes a stunt man, very successful, until one day after a successful shoot he calls Dal-Rae to talk about his success when he is hit by a car. Dal-Rae calls him to tell of her success, and the next thing we know she is in the hospital visiting Ji-Hwan. His right leg had to be amputated below the knee, his stunt career over. Devastated, Ji-Hwan abandons his father and his friends and drowns himself in misery. Dal-Rae manages to give him a video tape that she recently made before he left. In a dreary hotel room, Ji-Hwan plays it and it shows her attempt to make him happy, a rally to keep on living, as well as a payback for all the times that he helped her in her times of need.
A year passes. Young-Hoon takes his girlfriend out for a birthday dinner, and she is surprised to see Ji-Hwan there. She slaps him and runs away. Young-Hoon and Ji-Hwan talk things over, and while Ji-Hwan is in the men's room, Youn-Hoon reads a manuscript that Ji-Hwan had written (in order to stay in the movie business), and realizes how deeply he feels for Dal-Rae. He gives the manuscript to Dal-Rae, and after reading it she admits to herself her feelings for him. They reunite, and they live happily ever after, her as an actress, and he as a production worker. The end!
I read some other reviews of this film, and given their responses, I think they are being much too generous. Kwon Sang-Woo and Kim Ha-Neul are okay, but they have done better roles elsewhere (even in My Tutor Friend). I think the focus too much on them, and no one was paying attention to having a story in this film. The supporting cast is utterly wasted -- from Ji-Hwan's father, who manages to have a few moments where you can see the close relationship between father and son, but he disappears after his son's hospitalization. The Young-Hoon character and the girl that was briefly Ji-Hwan's girlfriend were not present enough in the film to make an impact. They are very two dimensional, which is a shame, because that is where some drama could have arisen and helped flesh out the story. And what is it with using cars crashing into pedestrians in Korean films? It's not because it fulfills the stereotype of an Asian driver. I blame the pedestrians for not looking when they cross the road! Seriously, it is an indication of very lazy script handling. It has become such a cliche. By the 2/3 mark of Korean melodramas there has to be that twist, that kick in the shins that changes the tone of the movie and become something else. Sometimes, it works. Not here. You have your drinking scenes, your karaoke scene, and a brief competition moment that should have been played up more, to keep the guys interested, if only briefly. Poor guys! Poor me for watching this! I can only recommend this to those who love this kind of weepie. Actually, guys should have a barf bag for him and a bunch of tissues for her. And think about baseball, than concentrate on this film.