What is the main idea explored in “One Fine Spring Day”?
The main idea explored in the movie is the fragility of affection and the sufferings it causes. The author of the film explores the idea that love affairs are limited in time and often result in sufferings of one of the partners caused by unrequited love. The allusion to the similarity between different stages of love affairs and the seasons reveals that as nature is destined to experience blossoming in spring and decline in fall, the love affairs are bound to come to end. When finishing watching the film, the viewer gets an understanding of the inevitability of the decline of feelings and accompanying suffering following the outburst of happiness people experience at the beginning of the relationships.
Does the movie define characters as positive or negative based on their actions related to the love affair?
What distinguishes “One Fine Spring Day” from the rest of the movies about love affairs is that it does not give appraisals to the actions of the characters involved in the relationship. Most movies about love portray the person abandoned by a lover as a victim and a positive character and the person who is the initiator of break up as a negative character who does not care about the feelings of other people. However, Hur Jin-ho does not give any evaluations to the choices made by Eun-soo and Sang-woo.
The movie portrays life as it is without judging who is good and who is bad. The viewer might sympathize with Sang-woo due to the sufferings he experiences but does not get the feeling that Eun-soo can be blamed for something. On the opposite, the movie helps to understand that the choice made by Eun-soo was destined to occur, and there is no one to blame for the end of affection since it is always bound to end. In such way, Hur Jin-ho portrays the end of love affair not as the guilt of some person, but as a natural appearance that can’t be avoided.
How the movie explores the idea of marriage?
Both of the main characters are influenced by the idea of marriage in some way. Eun-soo has already been married and divorced, and the experience she has got from her marriage has a huge influence on her perception of love and relationships. Sang-woo is assumed by his relatives that it’s time to get married, and when he meets Eun-soo, he starts thinking about marriage. The movie portrays the visions of marriage typical for a young, naive person as Sang-woo and for an experienced person as Eun-soo.
The film contrasts Sang-woo’s boyish expectations and exaggerated excitement to restrained feelings of Eun-soo, who has been hurt by unsuccessful marriage. The movie explores the theme of divorce, which is becoming more and more common in South Korea (“Number of Divorces” par. 2). Hur Jin-ho does not present an idealistic concept of marriage. He portrays life realistically, with all the difficulties and pain met by people on the way to building long-lasting relationships.
Works Cited
Number of Divorces Hit 114,781 in 2012. 2013. Web.