Taken from the novel Pavane for a dead princess and same title composition by Ravel. This review is conflicted, because it’s a good film, full of feeling, but it made me cry. Some might call it bittersweet.
Story in details:
It’s about three people, not just two. Mi-jeong is a young woman working in the storeroom of a huge store; since she was a child she kept her head down and lived in the shadow, doing what she had to do away from people. She’s considered ugly because she doesn’t wear make up or fashion clothes (which too often is the difference between popular and not), she’d rather be ignored, but Gyeong-rok doesn’t.
At first he feels sorry for her, because she works a lot and nobody helps her, and she’s always alone. He starts helping her sometimes, talking to her. She loves classical music, she’s the one that explains the title, the musical piece for pianoforte by Ravel. He loves to dance and she encourages him. He didn’t like her at first glance, but he finds that with her he feels real and like he can be himself.
They spend a lot of time together, they talk and lauh, but when he goes to a dance school or whatever, she feels a bit like he doesn’t really need her.
She found it surprising how easy it was to love him, she felt precious and happy, but also confused by all those emotions, and when she realized she kept thinking of him all day long, that he was her first and every thought, she left.
It had become painful to feel that he could live and be happy with his dance friends without her; she goes away but leaves him a letter to explain this reasoning and tell him that she loves him.
The third person important to the story is Yo-han; he works with Gyeong-rok and he’s the son of the boss, but his mom was his mistress not his wife, and he left her and some time later she killed herself.
He always acts confident and happy, but he has great pain inside. Nobody knows it until he tries to kill himself.
After weeks alone, Gyeong-rok is given Mi-jeong’s address by a coworker and writes her a letter. He misses her and they spend a day together. Before going away, he tells her he loves her and doesn’t want to stay away, he wants to meet her again, and they set another date; she will wait all day for him but he will never show up.
Some time later, Yo-han writes a book and speaks on the radio about it. He says the book is about two friends that he mete a few years before, when he didn’t know how to live or if it was at all worth it to do it. He says he was full of doubts and questions, but then he met them and they gave him hope.
He says they helped him grow up. He says they’re fine, because youth is eternal, an illusion that will last forever.
His book’s last chapter explains how she waited but he never showed up, because his bus crashed into a big truck, and even when he could walk again his memoires were never the same again, and it was difficult for him to go back to his normal life… Yo-han sent Mi-jeong a copy, and she reads it, and we see the truth. He chose a different finale, but the truth is: Gyenog-rok died that night on the bus.
Yo-han says that love is imagination and survives in it.
Now Yo-han and Mi-jeong live better lives, they feel better with themselves and are still friends. He’s more balanced, she doesn’t avoid everyone but smiles at people she knows, and she feels that the light he gave her is still inside her.
So that’s what I meant. Sad, but also bittersweet, because there was understanding and love, and both Mi-jeong and Yo-han are better off now than they were before. The bit at the end, when she goes to see him play the drums, and she smiles at him and also at a woman, is a lovely scene.
Google ai says:
Ko Ah-sung (or Go A-sung) is Mi-jung
Moon Sang-min is Kyung-rok
Byun Yo-han is Yo-han
ITA Pavana
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