Miuriel (PanTonowicZ) Its not about plot, not about twist nor about something unbelievable. This is a film that concentrate on characters and their different points of view. Dialogues are very modest in expression. Director uses rather non-verbal communication. Shy look there, insecure touch there or actions that tells us more then words. All that accompanied by great cinematography complemented by sensual music or sounds of bamboo. Audience can enjoy that thanks to slow storytelling and long pauses filled with body language. Back to the story. Jin-ho Hur tells a story about 2 individuals and their evolving relationship. Sang-woo is a young sound technician inexperienced with strong feelings. He meets Eun-so recently divorced radio announcer. Director shows the beginning of their relationship with creating overwhelming atmosphere of excitement and happiness that even spreads on the audience. **Spoiler Alert**However just like in life at some moment everything starts to go wrong. Director don't give us clear answer what is going on because just as it happens in those situations you can only insinuate. From this point everyone starts to cheer only for one of the main characters. Those less experienced by love go with Sang-woo. Those that tasted ups and downs of loving stand with Eun-so no matter which sex they're representing. Ending is perfectly directed. As Eun-so and Sang-woo meet up after some time she puts him again at crossroads. As he declined its clear that he finally made peace with it. As she goes away we can clearly see his hesitation. In this moment thanks to film shot without depth of field her going away is like fading of a memory. ** End of Spoilers**As i mentioned before great cinematography is accompanied by amazing music and that builds great background to the story. However at some point this omnipresent music started to get on my nerves. I just think there is a little bit too much of it. As someone before me noted the easiest way to describe this film is to quote Alfred Lord Tennyson: "Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all"

aglobalcitizen I will not go into the details of the plot, but will make an attempt to explain the relationships between the two main characters.A divorced woman, who lives alone in her messy city apartment and occasionally drinks herself to sleep meets a guy by starting a new sound recording project. They were assigned to be a team, and slowly but surely their mutual attraction develops. The woman feels lonely and she takes it to a new level when she invites him to spend a night at her apartment. The guy has never had any serious relationships before. This is his first love. Before meeting her he leads a simple yet happy life with his dad and his grandma. His aunt occasionally visits the family to take care of the grandma who is slowly losing her memory. The guy is loved by his family and he loves them back. Later we learn that he lost his mom at an early age.Their relationships blossoms. The woman enjoys his company because he makes her life more orderly by bringing kimchi and making ramen noodles. Without him her sleeping patterns are completely messed up and she feels lonely. The guy enjoys making her happy, he practically glows with happiness (his co-workers and family started to notice) and would like to get serious about their future as a family. The woman insists on secrecy. She mentions that the guy may lose his job if somebody finds out about their affair. The guy is ready to give up his job in order to keep her - this is how serious he is. In reality, his sudden request to see his father scares her. She did not expect that he would get so serious about it so soon. She does not feel right about the relationship. She understands what a great guy he is but feels inadequate since she has already been divorced. Being torn from her desire to be with him and her guilt of being in a wrong relationship, she suggests to spend a month apart. When this does not work, she tells hims she wants to break up with him. She even starts a new (continues her old?) relationship to forget him.As with any person whose true love was rejected, he suffers a great deal and becomes almost a stalker. We do not see the tormented feeling the woman goes through, but we see the agony of the guy. He spends a night in a parking lot next to her apartment building, follows her to her friend's house and even goes as far as keying her lime green car. He is ready to give up his job for her, yet he does not get it: why did she leave him? His family and friends are very supportive of him. Then his grandmother dies.The woman calls him back. She wants to see him again.He comes to meet her, but when she mentions that she would like to continue their relationships, he rejects her. You can see that he still loves her, because this decision does not come easy to him. He has to make an enormous effort not to follow her when she walks away.You can also see that the woman loves him too. When she turns around and sees him standing, she could have come back and make him start over. But she finds the inner strength and empathy to let him go because she was not sure that she was the right person who could make him happy.

Oggs Cruz Although I didn't like April Snow, I have to admit that I got curious about it's clinical, meditative, and almost Ozu-like approach to start searching out its director's previous films. One Fine Spring Day is Hur Jin-Ho's second feature film. Surprisingly though, the film feels like it's been crafted by a master who's been making films for decades. One Fine Spring Day evokes a certain sense of maturity and control that deflects the low points of its spare plot. Sang-woo (Yu Ji-tae) is a sound engineer who lives with his father and his senile grandmother. He gets a job to record certain sounds of nature with beautiful radio DJ Eun-su (Lee Young-ae). Sang-woo, who seems to be an extrovert and Eun-su, who is more outgoing and openminded, get along very well and start a relationship. Their relationship, however, is not the type that would last forever as both characters are very different and both have issues that need to be resolved. Those seeking something that will provide for a fuzzy joyous romantic feeling would easily get disappointed with One Fine Spring Day. One Fine Spring Day, despite its rather light atmosphere, holds a bittersweet conclusion that feels all too real for comfort. It matches the joys of falling in love with the pangs of an unexplained break up. The beauty of the film doesn't emanate from the plot, or the characterizations, or even the technical merits, but from Hur's surehanded direction that never seems to stray from its melancholic tone. Hur doesn't waste time in dealing with heartwarming moments or scenes of melodramatic intensity. He satisfies himself with sincere moments of silence that somehow evoke great emotional weight. One Fine Spring Day is a lovely film. I loved the fact that it never breaks into serious drama or comedy. It stays right there, comfortable in the middle, chronicling in a very sure manner the failing relationship of the couple. It's very different from April Snow which I thought tried too hard to build up its setup with a more ominous atmosphere that bogs down whatever talent and effort Hur and the rest of his crew put in entirely.

mcw1138 I saw this film at the 2002 San Francisco International film festival and it was, by far, the best film of the ten I saw. Some of the others were so bad, that if it hadn't been for this one film, I would have considered my ten ticket pass to be a waste of time (if not money). This is a romantic film with a very cute and unique story line that alone, would make it worth seeing. But the sound editing and the cinematography really put it over the top in my opinion. One sound and visual sequence in a bamboo forest will stand out in my memory forever.Unfortunately, for those of us who would love to see it again, or those who have never seen it, this film did not get released in the US and is not available on DVD or video.