Lovers Vanished...
I was trying to find a witty comment about the movie to use it as subject line using 'vanished' that is a word that here it may allow some words play... but I guess I'm tired and nothing good enough came. Anyway, it's a good thing that I'm leaving Bad Guy until there are more subs available so I can more or less marathon it and enjoy Kim Nam Gil in his magnificent state there... Because Lovers Vanished wasn't what I was expecting.
Oh, how much I wanted to like this movie! How much I wanted it to be at the level of Portrait of Beauty... but it couldn't be.
Quite detailed plot:
Mia is the owner of a restaurant in a remote beach. She is also part of Magic Troupe formed by her boyfriend, a friend of him and herself. One night after work she is with her boyfriend and although he fights her a little they make love with no protection. Later on Mia catches him with his friend in an intimate moment. The boyfriend and the other man and both have AIDS. Enragged Mia buys a rifle and threatens them asking her boyfriend about who he really loves. They struggled and the rifle gets shot, killing the boyfriend's lover. However the boyfriend goes to the police station claiming he commited the crime.
In prison he meets Su-In who has tried to escape before and needs a new plan to do so. Su-In is told that if you have AIDS you will get the option of getting out of prison due to the illness and insistes Mia's boyfriend to help him. As he doesn't agree, one day while he's in the infirmary Su-In infects himself with his blood in the hope of being released from prison.
His motive to get out of there is to find the real killer of his wife (crime he was accused of). We learn that it was a priest that before being ordered had an affair with her and as she wanted to keep seeing each other, the priest accidentally (his words) killed her.
When Su-In learns the truth is devastated but at least has a way to clear his name until the priest kills himself.
Su-In goes away trying to hide and ends (following also the boyfriend's indication) in Mia's restaurant where he ends working as a chef.
Both of them are sick, the difference is that she is being treated and he doesn't. They both have a secret in his past and both share the little present they have.
Thoughts:
I really wanted one of those tragic love stories with sad end because of an illness that Korean movies and dramas offer so frequently. One of those you really want the main couple to end together against all odds but isn't going to happen... Well, nothing of that happens here, at least for me it didn't.
I don't know if it was the actress playing Mia, who I find quite cold, like she really doesn't care for anything (although that can be due to a false quietness she has since the rifle incident)... or the script.
Kim Nam-Gil looks good, acts good but I didn't feel like he had enough screen time to develop his story... 1) the drama that is that you didn't have a life in prison although you were innocent and, 2) now you're out of prison but you aren't free after all because of how sick you are and because the authorities are looking for you. He gets to point 2 solving point 1 and at the end he hasn't really solved point 1 and will be stuck in point 2 til his end. While he was in point 1 he had hope. In point 2 he's is waiting for the end to come or tries to find it sooner if possible...
What he doesn't expect is to find a partner in Mia who is dealing with the same things.
Visually the movie is quite beautiful but didn't really touch me either.
There is an intimate scene that it's quite nice (because I do think Kim Nam Gil is pretty good in them as that beautiful one in Portrait of Beauty)
I'm annoyed because I really wanted to like it and it's not a bad movie, I mean you can watch it in no time and enjoy Kim Nam Gil... but at the end it didn't reach me and I was like 'okay, what's next?'
Don't know if it makes sense.
Some Kim-Nam Gil caps (most of them are) to enjoy now that he's away for two years *pouts*
I am pretty sleepy right now so may be a possibility that something doesn't make sense. Sorry.
Oh, how much I wanted to like this movie! How much I wanted it to be at the level of Portrait of Beauty... but it couldn't be.
Quite detailed plot:
Mia is the owner of a restaurant in a remote beach. She is also part of Magic Troupe formed by her boyfriend, a friend of him and herself. One night after work she is with her boyfriend and although he fights her a little they make love with no protection. Later on Mia catches him with his friend in an intimate moment. The boyfriend and the other man and both have AIDS. Enragged Mia buys a rifle and threatens them asking her boyfriend about who he really loves. They struggled and the rifle gets shot, killing the boyfriend's lover. However the boyfriend goes to the police station claiming he commited the crime.
In prison he meets Su-In who has tried to escape before and needs a new plan to do so. Su-In is told that if you have AIDS you will get the option of getting out of prison due to the illness and insistes Mia's boyfriend to help him. As he doesn't agree, one day while he's in the infirmary Su-In infects himself with his blood in the hope of being released from prison.
His motive to get out of there is to find the real killer of his wife (crime he was accused of). We learn that it was a priest that before being ordered had an affair with her and as she wanted to keep seeing each other, the priest accidentally (his words) killed her.
When Su-In learns the truth is devastated but at least has a way to clear his name until the priest kills himself.
Su-In goes away trying to hide and ends (following also the boyfriend's indication) in Mia's restaurant where he ends working as a chef.
Both of them are sick, the difference is that she is being treated and he doesn't. They both have a secret in his past and both share the little present they have.
Thoughts:
I really wanted one of those tragic love stories with sad end because of an illness that Korean movies and dramas offer so frequently. One of those you really want the main couple to end together against all odds but isn't going to happen... Well, nothing of that happens here, at least for me it didn't.
I don't know if it was the actress playing Mia, who I find quite cold, like she really doesn't care for anything (although that can be due to a false quietness she has since the rifle incident)... or the script.
Kim Nam-Gil looks good, acts good but I didn't feel like he had enough screen time to develop his story... 1) the drama that is that you didn't have a life in prison although you were innocent and, 2) now you're out of prison but you aren't free after all because of how sick you are and because the authorities are looking for you. He gets to point 2 solving point 1 and at the end he hasn't really solved point 1 and will be stuck in point 2 til his end. While he was in point 1 he had hope. In point 2 he's is waiting for the end to come or tries to find it sooner if possible...
What he doesn't expect is to find a partner in Mia who is dealing with the same things.
Visually the movie is quite beautiful but didn't really touch me either.
There is an intimate scene that it's quite nice (because I do think Kim Nam Gil is pretty good in them as that beautiful one in Portrait of Beauty)
I'm annoyed because I really wanted to like it and it's not a bad movie, I mean you can watch it in no time and enjoy Kim Nam Gil... but at the end it didn't reach me and I was like 'okay, what's next?'
Don't know if it makes sense.
Some Kim-Nam Gil caps (most of them are) to enjoy now that he's away for two years *pouts*
I am pretty sleepy right now so may be a possibility that something doesn't make sense. Sorry.