[KFCC] Madeleine Review

Story: Ji-Suk (Jo In-Seong) and Hee-Jin (Shin Min-Ah) were junior high school classmates. By chance, the two happen to meet again several years later when Ji-Suk goes to cut his hair, where Hee-Jin is a senior hair designer. Their paths cross by chance a few more times and the two grow closer. Finally, Hee-jin suggests a ‘one month romance.’ “Neither one of us can say ‘Let’s break up’ before the month is up! After a month, we part ways grandly!” The two have nothing in common, but when they are together, everything is so right. Things take a turn for the worse when an unexpected complication and old friends come into their lives. This is the story of Hee-Jin and Ji-Suk’s romance through happy and tragic moments.

Review: Coming off of a sour relationship a few months ago, I came to lose hope regarding any form of romantic relationships in my life. I was in no mood to watch any stinking drama about love and people falling into each other. But I’m glad I gave this movie a chance. If anything, this movie only gives me hope. I hold this movie very dear to my heart, and I hope many of you will give Madeleine a try.

Madeleine is a movie that just makes the audience happy. Most of these types of movies are all very similar. You know the formula. Boy meets girl, guy does something stupid and needs to make up for it, and eventually gets the girl. I’d have to say this movie is on a more mature scale, but unlike the other drama for twenty-somethings: My Beautiful Days (aka 24), this one gets all the points right. If I had to compare this movie to another, it would have to be the one and only “My Sassy Girl.” Granted, it’s not a knock-off of that movie, the way the movie makes you feel about it’s characters is similar. If you liked Jeon Ji Hyun in My Sassy Girl, you will love Shin-Min Ah in Madeleine. She’s got that carefree and lovable attitude that is just missing from most girls nowadays. From the way that she smiles, or just plays around, I can’t help but admire her. From the get-go, I could tell that her character would be a strong and hopeful person that I would definitely be caring for as the movie progressed, and I was right. Shin-Min Ah knows how to act, and she shows it.

I love this movie so much, I’ve watched it twice, and have been listening to the soundtrack constantly and thinking about Madeleine more than I should be in a single day. This is just one of those movies that you’ll find yourself thinking about for several days after you’ve watched it. Kind of like how your first kiss is. You finally get that first kiss, and you’re thinking about it for several days after. It’s a nice and refreshing feeling, and hell, this movie is definitely refreshing in it’s own right. This movie is definitely not a sleeper once you get into it. Sure it’s a drama and a romance, but that doesn’t mean that Madeleine is a movie for the ladies. It’s got it all, sexy girls (or in this case, a single sexy cute girl), smart humor, a great soundtrack, and just plain real emotion. What makes this movie even more appealing is just little tidbits here and there that just put a smile on your face. The two main leads have such good chemistry together on screen that it makes the comedy and tender parts wholly enjoyable. Imagine the two sitting right next to each other, conversing only by text messages sent to each other’s phones as the text bubble pops up by their head. I thought it was a rather cute and unique thing to see this happen. Another part that comes to mind is where Hee-Jin, and Ji-Suk are riding bikes in the pouring rain and Hee-Jin falls down. What happens is just a pleasure to see as they start frolicking on the ground with each other in what seems like loads of fun.

On a side note, it’s said that the two main leads wanted to work with each other for so long, that they promised that when they do, they’d make a great movie together. I absolutely agree that they’ve made a grand movie.

I’d also like to comment a little on the movie’s soundtrack. I love it. Like I said, I’ve been listening to it non-stop for the past 2 days. The music just fits perfectly with this movie. Most of it is some nice sounding instrumental music, but the vocal tracks are where all the goodies are at. The songs I’m talking about are sort of an alternative/rock type of thing, Korean style of course. The lead singer is a girl in the movie (who is also an important character in the movie), but apparently the band is actually a real band. Again, I’m not sure who they really are. All I can say is, the lead male singer and guitarist looks an awful lot like Austin Powers…only Korean. I’ve provided a link to two of the songs from this movie. Courtesy of yours truly. I don’t know what it is about these songs that make them so damn good to me. But maybe it’s just the mix of the movie and the music that make it so appealing.

MP3 Download: Madeleine 7.mp3

MP3 Download: Madeleine 12.mp3

Cinematography is also excellent in this movie as it uses a camera with a panoramic lens for an excellent 2.35:1 aspect ratio to capture the greatest quality. Visually, this movie looks stunning! Even though the whole movie looks great, there are moments when cinematography is just plain beautiful. I adore the character profile segments. You know, those scenes where it’s just one character standing there thinking to themselves? I always look out for those, and this ones got them too. See the pictures to see what I’m talking about.

Storywise, this movie comes out on top of most Korean melodramatic comedy movies. It’s sweet and romantic how the two decide to go out with each other for one month and part ways. The only thing that complicated things for Ji-Suk is that he didn’t know that he’d really be in love with Hee-Jin after that month was up. If you’re wondering how the music aspect fits into this movie, here it is. It seems that Ji-Suk’s first kiss and first love was from a girl he used to know in 9th grade. Her name is Sung-Hae and guess what? She’s back in town and she’s the lead singer for a rock band! To avoid any spoilers, I’ll leave it at that. But anyway, it’s how Hee-Jin and Ji-Suk overcome difficulties and understand each other, that ultimately they learn to find that they love each other.

“I learned from her that love is to embrace the sadness hidden behind the smile.”- Ji Suk. In the end, the main theme of this movie is to be patient, and love the person for who they are no matter what they do. Love the person behind the smile. It takes more to forgive and love than to throw away what could have been.

In conclusion, the movie takes a great soundtrack and melds it together with an equally fantastic and involving story that needs to be seen to fully do it justice. If you’re looking for an enjoyable romantic movie with some rather sweet moments that will tickle your funny bone, you may just want to give Madeleine a try. Here's to all of us finding our better half, whether we’ve found them yet or not.