For Horowitz

For Horowitz is about a woman (Ji-Su, played by Uhm Jung-Hwa) whose family sacrificed everything to put her into music school. However talented she was, she could not attain the next essential step to developing her career: studying abroad. Ji-Su ended up becoming a woman in her thirties, still single, and her career on hold. To regain some control and direction, she moves to a small city and takes over an old studio where she plans to give lessons to those who are serious about music. But she finds out that teaching in a less populated area means less talent. Mothers bring in their sons or daughters who are mediocre at best. There is a boy (Gyung-Min, played by Shin Eui-Jae) that she has run in with, a troublemaker who causes havoc around him, especially the pizza place below her studio. He steals her posters advertising her studio, breaks windows, just causes a general mess. Ji-Su finds the boy's grandmother -- his only family member and guardian -- and finds that she is no better at controlling her grandson. On top of everything else, while attending a piano recital by an old mentor, she encounters her fellow classmates, all of whom are having various degrees of success, and who are still trying to compete against each other to succeed. She finds it demeaning and distasteful. One day, she is trying to deal with Gyung-Min -- in an arguement with the grandmother she boasted that she could do a better job feeding him, and the grandmother took her up on it -- and discovers that he has a talent for playing the piano, having the ear to reproduce notes perfectly. She decides to teach him, and he becomes a willing pupil. Gyung-Min's talent is such that she begins to dream fame and fortune for the both of them -- in reality, she is happy to take him to a department store, where they find a piano, and he in effect becomes an advertisement for her studio. Soon she is swamped with children, including the pizza man downstairs, who has become smitten with her beauty and her playing, and has decided to take lessons to be near her. But Gyung-Min becomes jealous at the lack of attention that she now gives him, and starts trouble by picking fights with the kids. Horrified mothers take their children out of class, and soon she is down a handful of students. The relationship between Ji-Su and Gyung-Min become closer to mother and son, yet there are still some barriers -- he has flashbacks to a car accident that killed his parents, and is afraid of bright light. And she is living though him in music success. At his first competition, he is nervous but prepared, yet becomes paralyzed by the spotlights that turn on in his face. Gyung-Min never competes, and embarrassed, Ji-Su refuses to teach him anymore. Their separation causes anxiety for both, and she eventually finds him and reconcile. One evening they meet the teacher's old classmate, who invites them to a house where a visiting music teacher and his wife are staying. After Gyung-Min does an impromptu recital, he gains their favor, and afterwords is invited to study under the professor overseas. This is the opportunity that Ji-Su never had, and she has mixed feelings about it, thinking that she can do just as good a job. After the boy's grandmother dies in the hospital, she plans on adopting the boy. Her family though does not think she is up to the task, especially as a single woman. Her brother thinks that he is better off overseas, under the professor's tutelage. Confronted with the fact that she was never given this opportunity, and that she still hasn't progressed much in her social life, she concedes. They have a tearful departure. Years later, she and the pizza man are a couple, and attend a piano recital by a new prominent pianist. It is Gyung-Min, now grown to be a masterful musician. He dedicates a piece to her, and it is a tune that he made up one day in class.

This is an enjoyable film, even though it has a by the book plot. Uhm Jung-Hwa and Shin Eui-Jae give solid performances that show depth and complexity that makes their on screen relationship so moving. The music, so often annoying or generic background noise in many Korean melodramas, is excellent in this film, as it should be. The direction is excellent, conveying emotion without hysterics, effectively telling the story, giving flashbacks and revealing dreams that add to the story and not be a distraction. Recommended.