Directed by: Lee Hyun-seung (이현승) Starring: Jun Ji-hyun (전지현), Lee Jung-jae (이정재) Release Date: September 9th, 2000
With the day to day worries and stresses we all face, I sincerely hope that everyone has at least one “go to” film in their back pocket in which revisiting allows for a recalibration of sorts for the mind and heart. One that helps to move the frustrations and concerns aside for a fresher outlook on the world, that in turn allows for a centering of oneself to refocus on the simpler pleasures and more magical aspects of life. For me, the 2000 South Korean fantasy romance film Il Mare starring Jun Ji-hyun (Windstruck) and Lee Jung-jae (Deliver Us From Evil) does just the trick. While Il Mare can feel incredibly lonely at times, it offers a deeply moving story of time-transcending-love that crafts an unforgettable cocktail of introspection and inspiration.
On the day Eun-ju (Jun Ji-hyun) moves out of her lakeside home “Il Mare”, she puts a Christmas card into her mailbox for the home’s next owner to wish them well and request that they forward a special letter she’s been waiting for to her new address should it arrive. She signs with her name and date: Kim Eun-joo, 1999. When she anxiously returns to the mailbox to check up on the status of her card, she finds a confusing response letter signed with the name and date: Sung-hyun (Lee Jung-jae) 1997, that he’s the first person to have lived in “Il Mare.”
But as surprising as it is to them both, their continued correspondence soon allows them to accept the fact that they are indeed living two years apart with the lakeside house’s magical mailbox allowing them to send both letters and items back and forth. With both of them entering a dispirited new chapter in their lives, they form a special bond that awakens a hopeful spirit within each other as they share personal tips on how to avoid loneliness. But when they attempt to change regretful aspects of their lives through the sharing of the privileged knowledge of their times, requests to alter the past and future prove more difficult than they could have imagined.
Both main characters, Eun-joo and Sung-hyun, have more in common than just having lived in the same house or seeming to be raising the same dog. Both are experiencing their own personal heartaches despite their relative professional successes. And while they have willing and able nearby friends offering support, they chose to internalize their pains as they work through them. There’s something about both of them I find to be almost universally relatable as they regain their footings in life.
And when the characters in Il Mare decide to make decisions to alter their past or present, they encounter roadblocks or other unexplained phenomenon that prevent them from completing their tasks. Whether their intentions are noble or selfish, the growth of each character is marked by their heartaches and triumphs along the way that lead to the necessary self-discovery to get them through their problems. Story conventions surrounding the time paradox and reality like this not only make the unique premise of Il Mare more fun, they speak to some of the film’s musings on destiny and living with our choices.
There’s one part in Il Mare I’ve picked up on now having a better understanding of the Korean language that wasn’t ever subtitled in any of the editions of the film I had previously viewed that gives a great description of the lonely house “Il Mare” that brings these characters together. It’s the part when the character Sung-hyun reads from the book about his estranged father, the architect who designed the lakeside house. The caption under the picture of the home written by the father reads: “Only within intimacy and solitude does man discover himself” – father’s name. It goes on to describe: “As shown in his writing, the concept of the work is solitude. This house was completed for his beloved son, and the existential solitude of man is contained in it.”
The essence of the film is captured well in these words, but it’s the gorgeous photography from acclaimed cinematographer Hong Kyung-pyo (BURNING, PARASITE, The Wailing) and the enchanting, often jazzy original soundtrack by Kim Hyun-chul that sweeps me away from the film’s very first magical minute soaring over the top of the waters until it’s satisfying conclusion that put me in a dreamlike trance when watching Il Mare. There’s a stillness to the film and yet everything seems in motion, like time stopping for the main characters as they work through their troubles while the rest of the world goes on about their lives around them.
And while actress Jun Ji-hyun (Windstruck) would have to wait one more year to hit superstardom with the mega success of 2001’s My Sassy Girl, her role in Il Mare is my favorite performance of hers. As one of the most watchable actresses I’ve ever had the pleasure of seeing, she generates a commanding screen presence that allows her convey a lot of emotion with very little physical exertion. So the moments of quiet struggle and heartache felt by her character in Il Mare are perhaps felt stronger than if it were any other actress playing the part.
Actor Lee Jung-jae (New World, Svah: The Sixth Finger) has also since established himself as one of Korea’s A-list actors and biggest audience draws, and would later reunite with his Il Mare costar in two subsequent blockbusters: The Thieves (2012) and Assassination (2015). As the polar opposite of his character in the 2020 action drama Deliver Us From Evil (2020), Lee’s character in Il Mare is reflexive, delicate and peaceful. He’s a romantic at heart, and longs to square the conflicting internal feelings he harbors for his father’s abandonment. Lee’s performance is also a bit subdued like Jun’s but equally moving.
Although stories with similar time paradoxes allowing special communications between otherwise unconnected persons have become more common over the years (The Call, Time Renegades), Il Mare was one of the first alongside the film Ditto which premiered the same year. Its unique premise would also see Il Mare among the early batch of South Korean films being remade in Hollywood with The Lake House starring Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock in 2006. While such films stop short of actual ‘time travel’, they toy with ideas of altering past and future realities in ways that not only make for some intriguing narrative twists, but sticking to an otherwise traditional melodrama formula helps keep Il Mare feeling very grounded in reality despite the fantastical elements. And although the pacing may feel slower compared to the standards of today, Il Mare remains one of the all-time great romance films.
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