Korean DVD review: Re-incounter

Having debuted at the 15th Pusan International Film Festival (2010), Min Yong-geun presents  a dramatic, heart-wrenching story between childhood sweethearts. Yong-geun takes the risk of using little-known actors to portray this tale. It pays off big time.

Hye-hwa (Yoo Da-in) and Han-soo (Yoo Yeon-seok) were high school sweethearts, deeply in love and thought they were destined to spend their lives together. 

But after Hye-hwa becomes pregnant, Han-soo GTFO, as they say, fleeing to Canada with no plan to return home. Hye-hwa is given two options — raise the child alone or give it up for adoption. Shortly after birth, the audience is led to believe that the child dies. Hye-hwa enters a deep state of depression. 

Han-soo, though, discovers that the child was actually given up for adoption. He lurks outside the adoptive family’s home, trying to get a peek at his child. 

Han-soo now seeks to reunite with his long-time lover to form the family he abandoned.

Hye-hwa has other ideas. Simply put — she hates him. Undaunted, he asks her to follow him back to Canada.

Han-soo kidnaps his daughter from her kindergarten, with the hope that they could be together like a normal family. The police arrest him for kidnapping. Believe it or not, this is when the surprises begin. 

The film is not linear. Flashbacks provide plenty of backstory and context for this convoluted tale. It contains a lethargic beginning, which leaves the viewer a little bored, as nothing seems to be happening in the opening 30 minutes. A dramatic ending, not unique among Korean movies, will torture the viewer’s emotion. 

Unfortunately, the film’s ending desn’t contain enough to make it a worthwhile picture to seek out, as the slow build-up lacks enough to keep your attention. If, by some miracle, you survive until the film’s finale, you will not be disappointed with the conclusion.