There are vanilla and sentimental movies we keep dearly in our hearts, The Classic is a perfect example of it.
This movie I first saw over 15 years ago with my high school friends. When I did a recap in 2011, and even now while I am posting it again, the endearing feeling remains the same. The Classic takes a vibe that never gets old. In fact, like wine, it gets sweeter through the years.
I knew Son Ye Jin through her films and has been a fan since then. The Classic also introduced me to Jo In Sung, who has become one of my favorite actors as well. Cho Seung Woo has recently gifted us with exemplary portrayal in drama, Stranger. In this movie, he will make you cry.
The Classic Recap
Ji-hye (Son Ye Jin) is a typical young woman, with a constant habit of *pffft sighing and enjoys Taekwondo. Her father died when she was young, and her mother didn’t opt to marry again.
While tidying up the house, she takes a box that is very special to her mother. There in the box, are letters of her mother’s first love.
She is about to read one of the letters when the telephone rings, and when she comes to pick it up, the wind blows the letters out of its confinement.
The caller is Ji-hye’s friend, Soo-gyung, who is inviting Ji-hye to come with her and Sang-min (Jo In Sung) to visit an Art Museum.
Soo-gyung likes Sang-min and Ji-hye has been helping her write e-mail love letters for him. Secretly, Ji-hye also likes Sang-min, just like most of the girls on the campus, but she has to give way for her friend.
When she gets back to the room, she sees the room in a mess because of the scattered letters. She picks up the letters, sits down, and turns the pages of a journal. She sees a picture of a young man, and from that picture – we will recount the past – involving Ji-hye’s mom and her first love.
Tae-soo (Lee Ki Woo) approaches Oh Joon-ha to request him to write love letters for her fiancée, Sung Joo-hee (Son Ye Jin). When Tae-soo shows him her picture, Joon-ha is sent back to a beautiful memory he shared with her.
Joon-ha is catching a beetle with his friends in the countryside, but his attention is caught when he sees a beautiful young lady passing by. His friends tell him that she is from the city and is a Congressman’s daughter.
In another moment, Joon-ha is catching beetles with his friends, (Oh how simple and pretty killing time before, you just have to catch insects *chuckles) the young woman approaches Joon-ha to look at the insect. Beaming, she asks him to accompany her to go to the haunted house near the river. Lovestruck, and even without knowing how to row a boat, Joon-ha obliges to her plan.
Joon-ha and Joo-hee go haunted house hunting in the next day, and when they arrive at the place, they scream when they see a drunk old man.
Unfortunately, the rain falls and pushes away their boat so they have no choice but to wait for the rain to abate and settle inside a small resting place. They happily eat watermelons to appease their hunger.
When they are about to depart, she gives him her necklace as a token of their connection. However, when she reunites with her worried family, her grandfather slaps his face.
It is hard for Joon-ha to write letters for Tae-soo because he himself wants to tell a lot of things to her. But he doesn’t have a choice but to help his friend, and in a way continue his secret love for her.
Tae-soo comes rushing one day to find Joon-ha in the library. He received an invitation to witness Joo-hee’s musical recital. Joon-ha goes to see her perform and hopes to give her flowers, but she was dragged for lunch with Tae-soo’s family and hers.
Joo-hee comes back looking for Joon-ha, and after a quick hello, she excuses herself because she can’t stay long.
Back to the present time in the Art Museum, Ji-hye exchanges glance with Sang-min while Soo-gyung annoyingly plays sweetly with him.
When Ji-hye tells Soo-gyung that she’s wanting to leave, he tries to convince her otherwise by asking her to spend dinner with them, but she politely refuses it.
When she is about to leave, Sang-min calls her again and asks her to pick a gift. She picks one then she leaves, but Soo-gyung follows her to exchange the present she got.
When she gets home, she is debating whether to open or not the gift and when she finally opens it, she is surprised to see a cute bear key chain and a short love letter.
Of course, the user-friendly Soo-gyung demands to get the love note when she reads it to her over the telephone. Ji-hye is sad thinking that Sang-min must have really like Soo-gyung a lot to write something sweet and special like that.
Switching to another flashback, Tae-soo asks Joon-ha to come with him to a Polka class with Joo-hee and her friend Na-hee. Joo-hee is surprised when Tae-soo introduces Joon-ha as his best friend.
The secret lover’s exchange whispers on how coincidence is playing with them as Tae-soo in his playfulness changes the Polka music to Rock and Roll. Tae-soo walks Joo-hee home, annoyed with her tongue twister display, Joon-ha leaves Na-hee’s side secretly and rushes to catch up with Joo-hee.
When Joo-hee is about to ring the doorbell, the street light flicks on and off in resemblance to a firefly, and she smiles when she sees him standing beside the street light post. She embraces him and I-love-my-best friend’s-fiancee-love-tale is officially established.
Back to the present time, Ji-hye purposely tries to be late for her music class only to find out Soo-gyung patiently waiting for her as well to get the love note.
Ji-hye gets caught in the rain so she shelters herself under a tree. She sees Sang-min running towards the shed and pretends she doesn’t notice him, but he calls her attention and they are put in an awkward situation.
When she tries running away, he asks her where she is heading. She tells him her destination and he offered to run with her until she gets to the library.
Under that rainy day, with Sang-min’s jacket and a secret love resonating in the air, birthing to of the most iconic romantic scenes often referenced in Korean videos.
During the morning exercise, Tae-soo tells Joon-ha that Joo-hee is not responding anymore to his letters and it’s making him sad because it’s the first time he has really liked a girl. He goes to see Joo-hee confess his feelings for her.
When Joon-ha and Joo-hee meet up that night, he requests her to reply to Tae-soo’s letter. It made Joo-hee sad, because they are torn in causing pain to someone both dear to them.
Joo-hee decides not to see Joon-ha and Tae-soo anymore because of their complicated situation, but Joon-ha still visits him every night turning the street light on and off.
Joon-ha visits sick Joo-hee, and tells her that he wanted to come clean with Tae-soo. But when he tells him about it, he laughs and retorts not to let the necklace Joo-hee gave to him be seen by his father, because he gave it to her as a gift.
During school break they exchange letters, and one of the letters got returned back to Tae-soo’s address. He is hurt big time by his father because of it. Joo-hee’s father learns of her secret affair with Joon-ha and her plan to visit her grandfather’s house is canceled.
When Tae-soo and Joon-ha get back to school, not being able to handle the emotional stress, Tae-soo pretends to be sick during the morning exercises and attempts to commit suicide.
When Joo-hee visits Tae-soo in the hospital, Joon-ha hung the necklace she gave him on the doorknob and left. She tries chasing him but he is nowhere to be found.
Back to the current time, The store owner chats with Ji-hye. She narrates that she has a special umbrella, and it is special because Sang-min gave it to him.
She tells Ji-hye that Sang-min left it the other day when the rain was pouring heavily. Ji-hye realizes that it was the same day when she met him under the tree shed. It dawns on her that he might have liked her too and runs happily under the rain to see him and confirm her suspicion.
She goes to see Sang-min confirm if they have mutual feelings, and when she was about to walk away, he stops her and admits his feelings to her. He tells her that he likes her all along and that when he asked her to pick up the present, he was hoping, she’ll get the one with the note. (which we all know we got when Soo-gyung replaced hers)
During the stage play, Soo-gyung makes a fuss and childishly declares her love for him while they are on stage acting. When the curtains closed, Sang-min reprimands her and they end up slapping each other’s face.
Ji-hye and Sang-min go for a date and she tells him about her parent’s love story.
Tae-soo and Joo-hee meet again during a civil rally they both participated in. When the war breaks in, Joo-hee learns from Tae-soo that Joon-ha will be signing in for the war, she goes to the heroes’ send-off bay to see him. At first, he ignores her, but his heart melts and she gave him the necklace again.
But the war blinded Joon-ha, when he realizes that the necklace is lost, he goes back to the war zone and gets into an explosion. He wasn’t able to return to Joo-hee’s side and later married another woman who patiently took care of him even if he was blind.
Years later, Joon-ha finally meets with Joo-hee. He tells her that he was married already. He is pretending all along that he is not blind, but Joo-hee learns what he is trying to hide when he talks about a piano doll that was earlier picked up by a little boy to play with it.
She asks him how she looks and he replies differently. He hurriedly makes an excuse to be out of the situation but he falls down on the floor.
Both of them cry about how their love will be coming to an end. He tells her he even practiced there in the restaurant last night to calculate his movements, but it is still not perfect. He tries returning the necklace, but she puts it back on him and tells him that it will always belong to him.
Tae-soo and Joo-hee got married and had Ji-hye, but Tae-soo died after three years. (in the movie, Ji-hye has been seen doing that *pfffffttttt sigh, which she actually got from Tae-soo)
After Ji-hye narrated her parents’ love tale, Sang-min cries and takes off the same necklace her mother gave to Joon-ha. It turns out, he is Joon-ha’s son and the love that their parents weren’t able to have, will be finally achieved in their time.
Joo-hee and Sang-min pass by the fireflies’ bridge where their parent’s love story started. Sangmin catches a firefly and gives it to Ji-hye. He kisses her and the love that destiny denied their parents are given once again for them to continue.
MUSINGS
“Chance is a gift for those who try” is the classic memorable quote befitting the message of the film. When I first saw this movie, I was deeply moved I named my pet dog – Sang-min. *wink This made me hunt all Kwak Jae Young films since I also loved what he did in My Sassy Girl.
If you are looking for a weekend serene love movie treat, then The Classic is perfect for you.
Photos Credit To: Cinema Service
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