A Korean Christmas Movie (Sort-of) – “Christmas in August”
It’s a poignant story about love and life and how fleeting they are.
This is one of those movies that you think it’ll take a while to get going…only it never does. That’s not to say it’s a bad thing though.
Honestly, I thought it started off excruciatingly slow. But once I let go of preconceived notions that anything should happen, I found myself engrossed in the simplicity of Jun-won’s, the main character’s, life.
This film is beautiful in its simplicity. And yes I just called it a film instead of movie. Because it’s just that artistic. It definitely feels like it’s meant to relay a message as opposed to just entertain.
Spoiler Alert! Keep reading only if you don’t mind knowing the ending!
Christmas in August?
So the whole time I’m watching this, I’m thinking ‘what does Christmas have to do with this?’
Well unless I missed something (which is completely possible) I think there’s a couple of reasons why it’s titled the way it is.
Perhaps it’s because Christmas is usually a time of being with family and friends. And Jung-won gets to spend lots of quality time doing just that.
It’s also a time of reflection. Jung-won does plenty of that as well. You can tell he’s contemplating the innocence of youth and all the fun he had growing up, loving again, and having to face his mortality all too soon.
Actually all the characters seem to be in deep thought at times. You can’t help but wonder what they’re thinking about. But you can kind of guess…a lot of what ifs and should haves.
And then there’s the metaphorical sense that Christmas happens in the winter and winter symbolizes the end of life. It’s the last phase. But his last phase happens prematurely in the late summer of his life. He’s only in his thirties! So this poor nice guy finally finds love, only just before he dies!
The audience watches this nice, quiet man grapple with the knowledge that he’s going to die any day. Sure we all know we’ll die some day but the doctors have told him it’s soon, as in possibly tomorrow.
The saddest part is when he accepts his impending death by taking his own funeral picture. Just like the elderly woman he helped earlier who comes back for a retake of her funeral picture. She’s accepted that she’s going to die and thus might as well make the most of it.
And he slowly does as well. He writes down instructions for his dad on how to use the VCR and how to use the film developer at his shop.
Even though he has moments of anger, he gets up the next day and goes about his business as if nothing has changed. I don’t know about you, but I would find that incredibly difficult to do! But he accepts it and goes out quietly and gracefully.
It’s a beautiful and sad story. If you don’t feel like watching something heavy, I would definitely not watch this. But I highly recommend it otherwise. In fact, it’s considered to be so well written, directed, and acted that it’s often discussed as having been quite influential on the Korean film industry. It won a slew of awards when it came out in 1998. And although it came out about twenty years ago, it still holds up because the themes are so universal – love, life, and death.
Go watch it. You won’t regret it!
Let me know what you think about it in the comments!
And speaking of Christmas…if you need some ideas on what to get, check out these gift guides!