Director: Kim Do-young
Starring: Koo Kyo-hwan, Moon Ga-young, Shin Jung-geun
Country of Origin: South Korea
Running time: 1hr 55m
Romance movies are always frustrating.
Not my words but those of leading man Lee Eun-ho (Koo Kyo-hwan) – to describe a video game that he develops – in the latter part of a love story that drags on for longer than absolutely necessary.
Whether comedic, historic, or suspenseful, the romantic genre – even though it’s not really fair to lump everything into one indefinable category – has never appealed to me.
Gloopy sentimentality and inexplicable plot shifts that ensure sickly sweet endings are not my cup of tea.
However, Once We Were Us doesn’t quite contain all the hallmarks of the type of films that I would usually purposefully avoid.
From exhilarating beginnings to devastating conclusions and everything in between there’s a contemplative tone throughout.
Eun-ho first meets Han Jeong-won (Moon Ga-young) when they sit together on a bus from Seoul to his hometown of Goheung in Jeollanam-do.
A landslide stops the bus before it can reach its destination and the two form a bond after Eun-ho’s father (Shin Jung-geun) picks them up and insists they eat at his restaurant.
The students reunite in the South Korean capital, and after a period of hesitation and improbability, Eun-ho eventually persuades Jeong-won to move into his small apartment where their relationship blossoms.
Ten years later they coincidentally encounter each other again. The pair are both on a flight from Vietnam to South Korea which is cancelled due to a typhoon, and end up sharing a hotel room.
Full of reflection, regret, and a mutual ambition to succeed it’s plaintive without being maudlin.
Switching back and forth from the present, which is depicted in black and white, and the past, which is in colour, there’s a real feeling of unfulfilled potential about what might have been.
There are authentically touching moments as the withdrawn Eun-ho overcomes his shyness to convince Ga-young that they should be together.
No catchphrases or gimmicks flash up on screen, just snapshots of the banality of everyday life, from shared meals, dealing with noisy neighbours, supporting the Korean Taegeuk Warriors national football team and difficulties of finding a job.
Its depiction of the hardships of student life is grounded and believable, even down to small things like finding discarded furniture on the street and taking it home.
An adaptation of the Chinese film Us and Them (2018) it veers just on the ride side of mawkishness up until a climactic moment in the final third which might induce tears.
The two leads are exquisitely played. Koo kyo-hwan is not a stereotypical leading man, at least in the ultra-polished, airbrushed world of South Korean cinema where models and K-Pop stars are often chosen for big roles. An excellent villain in Peninsula (2020) and Escape (2024) he switches effortlessly into a completely different type of part, and one which requires a great deal of vulnerability and raw emotion.
Moon Ga-young wears a mask of single-minded determination as Jeong-won, who grew up an orphan in a remote area far from the bright lights of the capital city, as she navigates career and relationship troubles.
Yet for all its merits Once We Were Us moves step by step through every detailed part of Eun-ho and Jeong-won’s courtship, often pondering and lingering for too long on each thought and deed. I felt that at least 20 minutes could have been shaved off the running time without losing anything significant from the story.
Despite its deliberately drawn-out narrative there is far more to appreciate than repulse in a tender affair of love won and lost.
@skasiewicz.bsky.social
Stephen Kasiewicz 