Naesaengae gajang areumdawun iljuil (2005) Online

Since the inspired "Palwolui Christmas" (Christmas in August) (1998) and the clever "Yeopyijeogin geunyeo" (My sassy girl) (2001), Korean romances have taken a downhill plunge towards being sometimes contrived, sometimes formulaic, sometimes sappy, sometime outright silly, and sometimes all of the above. (In fact, "Palwohui Christmas" has so much depth that it's unfair to call it merely a romance).

Thankfully, there are still the odd ones that bring some freshness. Interestingly, two of them feature Eom Jeong-hwa, probably the closest Korean actress that gets to Cate Blanchett (in terms of versatility, that is). One of these movies is "Love is a crazy thing" (2002) - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0315930/usercomments-2. The other is this one.

"Naesaengae gajang areumdawun iljuil", or "All for love", has been described as a Korean "Love actually", and for good reasons. In the currently rather popular "hyperlink movie" manner, half a dozen stories are interconnected, similar to what you see in "Crash". At the center is an odd couple of a divorced, sophisticated woman with a medical profession and a he-man type policeman, stumbling into romance unlooked for. Surrounding them is a variety of characters and situations: a gay executive, his 9-yaer-old son and an attractive, young male nanny; a young couple deeply in love but plagued by poverty; a 7-year-old girl struggling with cancer and her irresponsible father, a has-been basketball superstar; a relatively elder movie director and his unspoken affection for a woman tenant, an owner of a coffee shop but dreaming to be a star; a teenage girl torn between religious and romantic passion and her pop idol, both in sick bed. It isn't really important how all these stories are linked together, in one way or another, cleverly or otherwise. The important thing is you are unlikely to get bored, with so many things going on.

There is liberal use of Hollywood references, from the immortal faked orgasm scene in "When Harry met Sally" to beautiful "Moon River" in "Breakfast in Tiffany's". These direct references are neither out-of-place nor illogical, as Hollywood does form a part of the collective memory of people everywhere around the world, whether you like it or not.

The cast is generally competent and the two leads Eom Jeong-hwa and Hwang Jeong-min do have good chemistry. Although I have given up on the banal Korean romances in general, this is one that deserves recommending.

La Plus Belle Semaine de Ma Vie (The Loveliest Week of my Life, aka: My Lovely Week or All for Love) is not the first Corean film I've seen that takes the central conceit behind British romantic comedy Love Actually and runs with it. The latter must have been a rather prominent success, either with Corean audiences or filmmakers, because every couple years, it seems like another film about multiple relationships with somewhat interconnected stories appears on the Corean film scene. Fortunately, this one doesn't do too bad a job with the conceit.

Each of the stories presented focuses on different aspects of relationships: a rather strict divorced executive's relationship (or lack thereof) with his friends and family including his young son, an old landlord's relationship with his widowed friend/tenant, financially burdened newlyweds, a divorced headstrong neurologist and a stubborn somewhat curmudgeon cop's antagonism, a somewhat crazy nun-in-training struggling between her calling and her pop-star crush, and a former professional basketball player with a young "make-a-wish"-type cancer patient. That said, although the film does shift a lot between the parties, the dramatic weight of the film does seem to fall into the romantic comedy of the neurosurgeon/cop and the melodrama of the has-been and the kid.

The hardest part about the film is that it really does go for breadth rather than depth, making its strength, the exploration of the contexts of love in different circumstances, also its weakness. Some of the stories seem almost inconsequential and sometimes characters seem to undergo changes without believable causes. Also, the connections at times seem a little contrived (the pop star, in particular), but not so much as to take you out of the picture. Just harder to swallow in retrospect. At the same time, several of the stories are certainly entertaining, including the developing love hate relationship between doctor/cop and the same love-hate between has-been/kid. Still, you can't help but feel that the film is a little slight as a result of twisting all these stories together.

Still, the production is pretty good, the acting is generally solid and the overall direction is good. It's only that the stories are fairly uneven in quality and suffer occasionally from a lack of focus. All in all, I'd have to say that The Loveliest Week of My Life was pretty decent for its entertainment value. You can't go into it looking for depth, but it does consistently hit more than miss when it comes to the genre elements of romance, comedy, drama and melodrama. It does get a little crazy and even unbelievable at times and sometimes it's hard to understand just why people are doing what they're doing, but its charms outweigh its flaws for the most part. If you loved Love Actually and want more of its approach to storytelling, you'll probably find something to like in this film. 7/10.