Directed by: Jeong Yoon-soo (정윤수) Starring: Uhm Jung-hwa (엄정화), Park Yong-woo (박용우), Lee Dong-gun (이동건), Han Chae-young (한채영) Release Date: August 15th, 2007
Director Jeong-Yoon-soo initially impressed me with the layers upon layers of subtext I read into while trying to breakdown his 2010 film My Wife Got Married. And after my Sci-Fi binge earlier this year, I became acquainted with his 2002 effort Yesterday, a futuristic action drama film that quickly became one of my favorite Korean Sci-Fi movies. This prompted me to take a deep dive into his past works where I discovered two more of his romance dramas, Love, In Between (2010) and Love Now (2007). And like My Wife Got Married, they looked to feature intriguing multiple-partner love stories or otherwise scandalous love affairs ready to provoke or alienate audiences from the get-go. Love Now definitely covers both of these bases, and while the story is predictable to some degree early on, it slams home a powerful second half with original plot turns as the tightly written and superbly acted characters become fully realized by its conclusion.
Yu-na (Uhm Jung Hwa) is a luxury fashion stylist tasked with revamping the wardrobe of Young-jun (Lee Dong-gun), a young and handsome CEO at a giant development firm. Young-jun’s beautiful wife So-yeo (Han Chae-young), an interior designer who specializes in lighting, is in need of hotel accommodation during her upcoming trip to Hong Kong. Luckily, Yu-na’s upbeat husband Min-jae (Park Yong-woo) manages an international chain of hotels and will be able to help So-yeo secure a room. As the two couples begin spending time with each other’s spouses, new feelings of love and lust emerge that shake the foundation of their marriages.
For all the success they have, Yu-na isn’t satisfied and hopes to continue climbing the social ladder. She’s a go-getter and very ambitious to advance her career, but doesn’t stop to appreciate her accomplishments or her husband Min-jae whom she pushes to make more money to help elevate their status. Min-jae is personable and sympathetic towards others, which may have hindered his professional advancement in some ways. You get the sense this couple married young and were very passionate early on, but it’s begun to fizzle out recently.
Young-jun is a young CEO of a development firm. To get there, his calculated and empathy lacking personality probably helped him advance quickly, but its left his relationship with his wife Yo-yeo cold. On paper, his wife is incredible. She’s career orientated, beautiful, artistic, and successful at what she’s doing. But Young-jun is either disinterested or bored with her. You get the sense that their marriage could have been arranged since Yo-yeo is said to have been born into an extremely wealthy and powerful family herself. Their relationship apparently has lacked passion from the get go.
So it becomes clear in Love Now that there will be a kind of coincidental partner swap from very early on. There’s this awkward vibe between the partners as the couples are introduced that I initially hoped was intended. A kind of awkwardness that would emphasize the future love connections made later after the partners got swapped, and that the vibe would somehow become more natural and balanced. But the uncomfortable vibe lasts a bit longer than I can make confidently make an argument as for its intendedness. That being said, Love Now does eventually end up on more comfortable and confident footing later on when characters become more fully realized through.
During the awkward stage of Love Now, characters get a chance to visit some fun locations including a boxing night club where Yu-na (Uhm Jung-hwa) gloves up for a drunken round of sparring with Young-jun (Lee Dong-gun). It’s easy to see how they end up falling for one another, Yu-na infatuated with the young CEO’s success, and Yong-jun falling for the trendy stylist’s passion and boisterous spirit — the exact qualities that are lacking in their current partners. Meanwhile, Min-jae (Park Yong-woo) strolls through the neon lit streets of Hong Kong’s shopping districts with So-yeo (Han Chae-young). They flirt and happily joke around with each other in ways they are unable to with their current spouses. This very coincidental partner swap can feel somewhat contrived and makes up most of the awkward stages of Love Now.
The most interesting part of Love Now is when the couples reunite after their night of infidelity. I was genuinely curious to see how the couples’ secrets would affect their relationships moving forward. Would they confess, hide until unwillingly exposed, regret, wish to continue, or repeat their actions was all up in the air. There’s clearly a proverbial elephant growing between the two couples more than usual now. How, when, or if it gets addressed at all becomes only a matter of time.
Like My Wife Got Married (2008), director Jeong Yoon-soo’s follow up work, there are several soccer analogies made during the playful love making banter that was kind of a fun way to spice things up. The sexuality overall is a bit more explicit than you’d typically see in a Korean romance film but it’s nothing too crazy or extreme either. Overall, the new felt love manifests slightly different in each character and there are several surprises along the windy paths they end up taking as they work through their emotions, each aboard their own emotional roller coaster set to derail.
Yu-na, the character played by Uhm Jung-hwa (OK! MADAM, Princess Aurora), seems more reflexive and intent on self improvement after the affair, while her husband Min-jae, played by Park Yong-woo (My Scary Girl), finds himself so completely head over heels for Yo-yeo that he not only ends up compromising himself foolishly on a few occasions but he becomes stifled, as how to proceed with his life.
And while Young-jun (Lee Dong-gun) may be willing to start over so easily with Yu-na, he faces the possibility of rejection for the first time in his life as he learns that all the status and good looks in the world won’t make up for his arrogance and selfishness. Lastly, Yo-yeo (Ha Chae-young) is left to internalize the confusion in her heart created by her failed interpretations of love thus far. Luckily, she’s able to channel it through her continuing artistic works and you get the sense that she’s in the process of reevaluating how she’ll share her love moving forward.
And while Love Now doesn’t have the happiest of endings, I did find myself rather happy with it. The characters really grew on me and the photography was downright gorgeous in most scenes. So after getting over the initial awkwardness, Love Now becomes a pretty decent watch as long as the inherent cheating doesn’t flat out anger you. Ultimately, what seems to begin like a B grade movie ultimately finishes up like an A- one. So Love Now does reward and have its moments if you’re willing to stick with it.
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