Movie Review : Il Mare (Korean)

Year : 2000
Genre : Drama
Language : Korean

Seong-hyun, an aspiring architect, moves into a beach-house designed by his estranged father, which he names Il Mare ("the sea" in Italian). One day he receives a letter from Eun-joo, a voice actress, addressed to the person who will move into "Il Mare" after her. Since he is the first and only person to live in the house, Seong-hyun takes it for a joke or a wrong delivery. However, as they keep corresponding with one another, they realize that Eun-joo is actually living in late 1999, two years into Seong-hyun's future. Initially bewildered and amused by the situation, they are gradually attracted to one another, and start thinking about meeting "in real time." However, they are about to discover a lot of things can happen to one's life in two years.
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A very moving movie. Hollywood made a movie this year based on this Korean number named "The Lakehouse" starring Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves. I give this movie a 7 out of 10.
Seong-hyun had a very intimate relationship with Eun-joo via letters delivered through the mailbox in front of the house by the sea. They share their inner most thoughts and they began to know each other in a very intimate ways in terms of emotions. Eun-joo revealed about the breakup she had with her ex boyfriend and Seong-hyun revealed about the death of his father and the relationship he had with his father with Eun-joo.

Day by day their relationship grew as they get to know each other in their own special ways; through letters just like penpals and they became each other's secret affairs for nobody would understand and actually believe their relationship with 2 year's distance. One day, to save Eun-joo for being hurt by her ex-boyfriend, Seong-hyun decided to go and meet her at the cafe where she is having her last date with her ex-boyfriend; to breakup with her. Out of distraction, he was killed by a car instantly while his eyes was searching for her to warn her not to be hurt by her ex boyfriend.

Living in the future, Eun-joo, knew that he would be killed dashed immediately to the mailbox and wrote a letter in tears to ask him to wait for her and not to go look for her so that he will not die. Eventually, he did listen to her words and the lovers finally got together.

Movie Review : Samsara (Tibetan)

Movie : Samsara
Genre : Drama
Year :2001
Language : Tibetan
Duration : 135 Minutes
Starring : Shawn Ku, Christy Chung, Neelessha Bavora, Sherab Sangey, Jamayang Jinpa, Kelsang Tashi

From the back of the movie:
What is more important: satisfying one thousand desires or conquering just one?

A spiritual love story set in the majestic of Ladakh, in the Himalayas, Samsara is a quest, one man’s struggle to find spiritual enlightenment. Samsara is the world; both inside the monastery and outside it. It is a story of a lama, Tashi, who leaves the monastery to become a farmer, to live a worldly life and his wife, Pema, who possesses the qualities of a sage, while living in the world.

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The abbot and his disciples brought along a small little lama with them to fetch Tashi who went into a 3 years retreat. When he was back, he was being given recognition for the completion of his effort.

One night, while Tashi was asleep, his room-mate, a fellow lama heard sounds from his bed and went to check on him. He found Tashi having wet dreams. Thought came to his mind as he thought of Tashi just coming out of his retreat. Has he already given up his craving for lust?

Soon enough, Tasi was being invited to attend a harvest party in the village. While staying over the night at one of the villager’s hut, Tashi saw Pema and his sexual lust was being aroused. In the middle of the night, Pemma came to his room and gave comfort to him. However, the thought cling on and Tashi soon found himself constantly thinking of her. One day, he decided to disrobe to pursue this lust of his. He took on a job in Pema’s household as a worker in the fields, married Pema and started a lovely family.

A son was born and it brought constant happiness into Tashi’s life. Thoughts of lust surface one day when Pema was out and went to the city to do trading. Tashi had an affair with one of their workers, a young Indian casual worker. Pema learnt about this but forgave Tashi. Tashi thought it over and decided to leave Pema and his son and put on his robe to be a monk again. Pemma followed him but Tashi was hesitant. At last, he asked for Pema to take him back but Pema is not willing for he has not learnt about his eliminating his desires or understood it and she was sure it will resurface again.

This is a wonderful story for us to recap on our precepts and cravings. Is it really important to really understand our cravings and slowly eliminating them?