Throughout the movie, long-take scenes with limited conversation were dominant. Accustomed to the fast-pace of recent movies, it was odd to see such a long scene at first. The whole flow seemed a bit unnatural until the sister of Jeong-Won, the protagonist, told him to let her know when he goes to hospital, implying that Jeong-Won had a serious disease that needed to be taken care of. After finding out about his illness, the whole movie seemed different, as if I was looking from the perspective of someone who knew the limited amount of time available to live, and then, the whole movie seemed natural. Long takes reflected the calm attitude towards his disease and life. Also, these takes were used to show the emotion between the two protagonists Jeong-Won and Darim, the girl Jeong-Won fell in love with. Long take expressed the love for each other when filming Jeong-Won and Darim tilting the umbrella to each other’s side to prevent the other from getting wet.
Adding to the long-take scenes, another uniqueness of this movie is that there were several implicit messages given via the limited conversation and dialogue. For instance, the director, at first, did not explicitly tell the audience that the girl (Jee-won) is someone Jeong-won used to like, but showed us via the awkward conversation on a road continued with the close-up of the picture of a younger version of her implying that she was important to him. The director also used weather and background to implicitly express the character’s emotion: When Darim was waiting for Jeongwon while he was at hospital, her emotion of feeling lonely was reflected in the falling leaves. Even though this movie had many more aspects that should be pointed out, I chose to discuss about these two key characteristics, long-take and implicit messages through limited dialogue and background, because it not only gave me a chance to relax throughout the movie and think back of my life at the end, whether I am missing out from these types of beauty in life while living busy, but also the reason it was possible to deliver this type of emotion within less than 100 minutes is because these two were the unique characters, which are able to be shown in a film, the media that shows a part of life focusing on certain aspects and able to touch the audience’s emotion.
Christmas in August is very famous movie in Korean film history. I have heard about this movie many times but have not seen this because it was released 15 years ago, in 1998. There was not chance to see this movie. So, it was good chance to see this beautiful movie as many people say it. Christmas in August is the story of one dying man. He has very serious ill. Therefore, he is going to die. He is a photographer who has own photo studio and he meets one girl who is a parking control police. They are getting know and like each other. But, she does not know he is ill. He keep this secret till the end. Although they like each other, he dies in the last minute of the movie.
When I heard the outline of the story, I imagine this movie is very sad because it is the story of dying man. I just guess that his family, the parking control police girl, and even he would be sad for his death. But, unlike my guess, this movie was so calm and composed. I feel so realistic. He does not express his feeling about his death. He just accept and wait for the death. He does not speak out about his ill. Just circumstance around him explains his real feeling. Absolutely, he is sad, is afraid of death, and has an anger for that. However, he is quite and calm. This movie does not try to make viewers sad and cry, it just shows the reality of dying man and silently explains feelings of dying man. The last love between he and she is also not grandiose. The feeling they experience is definitely love. Besides, it is the last love for him before he dies. But, its feeling is not so big. They do not cry together and feel sad about saying goodbye. Even, she does not know his sickness. He and his father's story also does not "tell" the sadness. It just shows something, something they feel.
This film is very realistic and calm. It make viewers actually "feel" and "think". This movie does not tell and express, it shows and make me feel. So, I liked this film. I liked the way of storytelling, moderated acting, and the music which can explains their feelings.
The long take. This film was full of them especially when it came to developing the relationship between the two main characters, but why was it used? We’ll see that it is used to make us believe we are looking at a series of pictures rather than a movie. First we look at the background of the main character, Jungwon. He is a single, middle-aged, photoshop, owner who has still not gotten over his first love who is now in a bad marriage with two kids. Kim Darim is a young, single lady who works as a traffic cop. We first see signs that Darim is falling for Jungwon. Jungwon doesn’t respond because he his dying. He has personally come to terms with his coming death which can be noted from an early quote where he is sitting in the empty playground saying that he would sit on empty playgrounds and think of his late mother and remember that eventually everyone dies and there will be no trace, nothing left. But in these days there are hints left as to those who were left behind. Those hints are photos and that is why the director chose to use long takes. Jungwon is a photo shop owner. He takes photos for people and even takes peoples memorial photos, the trace of people lost. By using these long takes during the developing moments of the relationships development it is as if we are looking at photos of this budding relationship. One of the better examples of this is when Jungwoo is in the hospital and out of contact with Darim. Darim is waiting outside of the photo shop. The camera is still and her movements slow. Its as if we’re looking at this photograph rather than video. This long take let’s us take it all in and consider the situation. We see her drift off screen and are stuck with a medium range shot of the photoshop. Is this a photo or video? It’s difficult to tell until she suddenly comes back into frame and throws a rock through the window, breaking our illusion of looking at a photo. Photographs were a central concept of this film and that is why the director chose to use so many long takes to make us feel as if we’re looking at photographs of this couple that could not be. Another example of this concept is when he was writing directions for his father. His father was old and unable to adapt to modern technologies and was very reliant on his son. We see the book in the background “마술과 사진” which translates to “Magic and Photo”. This says a lot about the relationship between movies and film. The fact that the director is treating these long takes as if they were photos come to life is almost magical. He sits there writing out these directions for his father during this magical photo which he will leave for his father. Another example of how even though Jungwon will soon disappear, it will not be without a trace. There are many more examples of how the director aimed to use the long take to make us feel as though we were looking at a series of pictures of the life of our two main characters Darim and Jungwoo.
Christmas In August is a love story of a dying protagonist, which has been dealt with so many times in Korean movies and dramas. However, unlike those movies and dramas, this film had less drama and words and more pictures and sounds. It was a slow, quiet movie. The movie was slow in that the cuts did not change rapidly and that there were a lot of long takes. And it was quiet not only in that the characters did not have many lines but in that it felt as if there was not much soundtrack played. There were scenes with music, but I felt like it was carefully played so that the music would not disturb or even bring out emotion of the scene. It was so serene throughout the film that when a song with lyrics was played, I could not get the song out of my head. After meeting his first love at his photo studio, Jeongwon takes a bus and nostalgically looks out the window. At this very scene, a song sang by Sanulrim—Over The Window An Old Thought May Come (창문너머 어렴풋이 옛 생각이 나겠지요) http://youtu.be/tcxzKa5mMjg —is played. The lyrics of the song were heard more clearly than usually it would and helped me understand the scene better.
The narration at the beginning of the movie suggests that Jeongwon thought about death for the first time at an empty schoolyard when he was an elementary student. Later, the empty schoolyard repeatedly appears at the film when Jeongwon struggles with the thought of dying. For example, after seeing a scene of Jeongwon returning from the hospital, we see him bursting into tears in the middle of cutting his toenails and then the empty schoolyard. Following a scene of Jeongwon’s funeral, again, a scene of the empty schoolyard is shown. Since death is one of the main themes of this movie, there were many scenes, implying Jeongwon’s death. The scene that I remember most is a scene of Jeongwon and his father at the fish market. After ordering a fish, father watches the fish die, bleed, and be cut and then turns his head to see Jeongwon, who is not looking at the dead fish but at the live fish in the tank. It seemed that father was aware of the fatalness of Jeongwon’s illness but Jeongwon did not want to think about his death.
The most poignant aspect of Christmas in August is its human portrayal. In other words, the film is immensely believable and captures experiences and feelings that everyone can relate to. As such, Christmas in August produces sentiments of nostalgia, comfort, and ultimately translates an array of human emotions both within the film and the viewer. Beyond the symbolism apparent in the film, the human conveyance that is laced throughout the film has a striking impact. In one instance, Jung-won eats watermelon with his sister on the patio, dabbling in small talk and spitting out watermelon seeds in the process. Another scene captures Jung-won and his old schoolmates taking one last portrait together; all aware of Jung-won’s impending passing. Arguably the most delicate and beautiful scene within the film is when Jung-won takes the portrait of the elderly grandmother who returns to the photo shop late at night, having changed her hanbok. She mentions that the portrait taken will be used for her memorial service; she says this with a sense of peace and a small smile, implying her readiness and content with what she will leave behind. This encounter foreshadows Jung-won’s later self-portrait and also creates a painful sting knowing that Jung-won is passing at such a young age. Jung-won’s optimism is a constant throughout the film. Despite his illness, he carries out his daily tasks with a positive attitude and a pleasant demeanor. This kind-hearted manner attracts the attention of Da-rim. Da-rim and Jung-won naturally develop a bittersweet relationship that is not able to come to full fruition due to Jung-won’s untimely passing. When the two go to an amusement park together, a couple taking wedding photographs are seen in the background. Da-rim and Jung-won would never be able to experience this stage of a relationship with one another. Their affection is untouched by deeper modes of contention and disagreement and instead leaves off in a delicate state of things, a wistful and beautiful lingering type of ending.
Christmas in August directed by Hur Jin-ho in 1998 is kind of slow movie. This movie don’t have any big incidents but it shows people’s ordinary lives that we can easily see around us. Therefore, this movie is much realistic than other romance movies nowadays. After Jungwon hospitalized, Jungwon and Darim cannot see each other anymore, but this movie shows the sadness with music and actors act not the words. Such as, Darim waiting outside of the Chowon Photo studio and writing letter to him and throw the brick to the display window of the photo studio. Also, this movie didn’t show what his disease was and what she wrote to him and what he responded to her. This induces people to think and imagine about this after movie. However, at the end of the movie the narration of Jungwon can help to think what he write to her. There are many long take scenes and it makes people to linger the image of the movie. At the end of the movie Darim came back to the photo studio later and found her picture and smiles shows that she knew that he also like her and be a precious memory.
Christmas in August by Jin-ho Huh expresses restrained affection between Jungwon and Darim. Jungwon`s death sentence restricts him from expressing his love for Darim directly. However his great love towards Darim is shown through the scenes such as Jungwon reaching out his hand on the window, staring at Darim from far away. Their affection is not shown imposingly; but their silent expression was enough for the audience to acknowledge their affectionate love. The usage of many long take scenes display the calmness of the characters and the setting which is unique from other fast-paced films of today. The falling leaves while Darim was standing in front of the photo studio displays the loneliness she feels and the time it has passed, the leaves symbolyzing autumn. Extreme sadness scenes of Jungwon`s death were ommitted from the movie, but in the scene of Darim smiling while looking at her picture displayed at the empty photo studio shows Darim`s feeling of nostalgia to Jungwon. The title of the movie itself has a great meaning, virtually explaining the feelings felt by the characters. December is said to be the month of couples because of Christmas. But to Jungwon, August is the last month of his life, and the month he is together with Darim. August is the month that made his heart flutter, so in that sense, August is like Christmas to Jungwon.
While watching this movie, I thought it was very strategic how the director showed the scene of the elementary school several times in the film. The movie started with the main character’s somewhat daily routine. He eventually goes to the elementary school and reminiscences about his childhood years at the school. There is another scene where Jungwon and Darim are having a race in what looked like the playground of the school. Also, throughout the movie, the scene of the front of the school is shown, as if it were a picture, during transitions of scenes. I think that the purpose of showing the elementary school so frequently was to show time passing and also to show the innocent and pure love between Jungwon and Darim growing. I also think that the elementary school represented a constant in Jungwon’s life. The school was always a treasured memory of his youth that has never been tainted.
When Jungwon meets his friend for sushi and soju, Jungwon says that he is dying to his friend. Although the audience knew he was sick, this was the first time it was shown that his illness was terminal. In the scene where they are in the police station, Jungwon lashes out for the first time in the film. His character was shown to be an optimistic, easy going guy but this scene shows us that he has emotional pain. He says, “Why do I have to be quiet?” but during this scene it felt like he was saying, “Why do I have to die? Why me?” It seems as though he came to terms with his imminent death, but drinking alcohol made him revert back to the stage of anger in the “five stages of grief.” This shows that Jungwon is human and can’t pretend to live life normally. Overall, I really enjoyed the movie. I thought this was the quintessential Korean melodrama. The sweet and pure love that Jungwon and Darim shared was really beautiful to watch. In Korea’s current day, many people date based on what the other person has to offer, whether it is a high paid job, social class, etc. But this movie showed a love between two people who loved each other for who they were and not based on materialistic things.
“Christmas in August” shows a story of a sick man who has accepted his inevitable death. Because he knows he is going to die soon, he finds joy in the little things and prepares for his death. In the beginning of the movie, he talks about his late mother and says how death is a normal part of life and that everyone dies. There were many scenes foreshadowing his death where he looked back at old photos, made step-by-step directions for his father, and took a grandmother’s memorial photo. Also, when he is out drinking with his friend, he says, “Let’s drink until we die,” which could be taken literally for him.
The movie was slow-paced and had mostly medium-length to long-length shots, which allows viewers to look more closely at details. The slow-pace and stillness of the movie ties together with the photography in the movie. The background music and minimal usage of dialogue let viewers pay attention to more of the visual aspects of the film. I paid more attention to the visual field of the film, much like when looking at photographs.
The movie Christmas in August was an extraordinary film. It has proved my stereotypical expectations of a melodramatic movie to be wrong. I expected the movie to be overly emotional and full of romantic scenes of lovers. However, the movie was rather a realistic representation of a love story. Throughout the movie, I was surprised by how little words were spoken by the characters. The story progressed smoothly without many events and words. Long shots of scenery blended with emotional music dominated the movie. Unlike many other romance movies, this movie did not show many romantic scenes of the two lovers, Jung-won and Da-rim, and this makes their love more sad as the audience’s think about what their love could have been. The movie successfully draws a couple’s love that shakes the hearts of the audience.
Throughout the movie, I was intrigued by a few recurring objects and events: ice cream, weather, and windows. Firstly, ice cream appeared in many scenes where Jung-won and Da-rim met with each other. Most importantly, it appeared in their first meeting and their first date. Ice cream seems to be a symbolic representation of their love that is sweet, but temporary. Secondly, I noticed that the weather played a significant role in the movie as well. The movie starts with hot weather of the summer. As the health of Jung-won worsens, the rainy weather dominates the scenes as if it is crying for Jung-won who suppresses his feelings. When Jung-won passed away, the movie features the streets nearby his photo studio covered with snow. Lastly, the role windows played in the movie was fascinating. The windows were the spatial representation of the distance between Jung-won and Da-rim. Through the large glass windows of the photo studio, Da-rim waited and looked for Jung-won at multiple occasions. Jung-won, too, frequently encountered Da-rim through the bus windows as the bus drove by her. Moreover, the scene where Jung-won looks at Da-rim from the windows of a coffee shop signifies their relationship, a relationship that is transparent, but is restricted by the spatial barriers. Towards the end of the movie, the movie left me questioning about the real meaning of the Christmas in the title and the movie. Perhaps, August was Christmas for Jung-won as he spent his time with his loved one, Da-rim, as Christmas is often regarded as the time for lovers. I can only speculate the meaning of the many elements in the movie as it seemed to me that the director left many of the narration up to the audience.
Unlike numerous other movies, there is not much of a plot to this film, "Christmas in August". The director, Hur Jin-ho, deals mostly with the main character in-depth and how he deals with people around him in his last days of life. From the beginning to end this movie flows with very much of the subtleness. Although Jung-won has an incurable disease waiting for his upcoming terminal end in his life, he is portrayed as a quiet, peaceful, and normal photographer who spends most of his time in his studio. The movie sets its tone by Jung-won's illusive narrative and the outside shots of street. Instead of using long-shot, the director focuses on silence, stillness, and close-ups in faces to give prominence to emotions that each characters are going through.
Moreover, the use of pictures plays a significant role in this film. Many people come to his studio either to take big, happy family picture or to print pictures for one's happiness and enjoy. These factors contrast with Jung-won's reality around him since his family is depicted as to not have much of communication and dialogue with each other probably due to them knowing about his terminal illness. Also when elderly woman visits his studio again to have her portrait taken for her funeral, we could observe Jung-won's sincereness to make her the most beautiful person in his picture and I'm sure that he has sensed concurrence between him and her. Indeed, eternity is represented as pictures in that even Jung-won leaves "how-to lists" through pictures that can be remained after he departs.
Last but not least, I thought that the title of this film might have a connection with his last lover character, Darim, as a Christmas gift in August, the time when they have met. It also gives a sense of limited time that Jung-won has by putting Christmas existing in August in the title.
Yunhwa Choi The movie, Christmas in August, is about a beautiful, but sad romance between a photographer Jung-won and a parking agent Da-rim. His workplace, a photography shop, gives one of the most important motifs that convey their love to the audience. Most of all, they first meet at the shop as Da-rim often comes to print the photos that she took illegally parked cars. Through the window of the shop, Da-rim and Jung-won used to have a conversation from the opposite sides. When Jung-won looks at her, her image is clearly vivid, and we can realize that her clear image seen through the window is contrasted to blurry image of Jung-won’s first love when he saw her washing the window. This may be symbolizing that Da-rim became Jung-won’s love forgetting his first love. The movie as a whole is slow and still as if we are seeing photos. Another important theme in this movie is Jung-won’s death. He knows he is going to die due to an incurable illness. He slowly accepts his fate that he is going to die soon by taking a picture of himself alone for the funeral. When he takes his portrait, we can predict that the portrait would be used in the funeral by an old woman who came to re-take her portrait. The title of the movie may also symbolize a young man’s earth death and his unforgettable love at his last moment. August implies youth and the age of Jung-won when we compare the one year to human age. Christmas, which implies the day when we get precious gifts, may symbolize Da-rim, who is a gift to Jung-won. Also, Jung-won dies in winter, and Christmas also can be the moment of his death. Accordingly, the title, Christmas in August, implies a young man’s love at his last moment before he dies. As we can see from the last scene where Da-rim’s portrait is hung in Jung-won’s shop window, Da-rim remained as an important part in Jung-won’s heart forever.
In “Christmas In August by Jin-ho Huh, first thing that I want to mention is pace of this movie. This film was composed to various long shot of scenes and surrounding sounds instead of the conversation between characters. It makes viewers to think the movie as a slow-paced movie. This slow-paced movie was a bit bored and seemed to not many story in it, but with slow-paced, it highlights pure love and sadness of Jungwon’s time-limited life. When I watched it, I thought some of scenes such as eating watermelon or riding a bike was unnecessarily too long, not having any foreshadows. But now I think it is one of strategies of showing how he enjoy and be satisfied with trivial things in his life. Those scenes emphasize sadness of his destiny.
Christmas in August, directed by Hur Jin-ho, is not completely a tear-jerking, melodramatic movie. Rather, the movie seems different. The story focuses on a humble, quiet, and terminally ill photographer, Jung-won, that keeps to himself and dies at the end. However, we don’t know what illness Jung-won had. Also, since he kept to himself quite often, he doesn’t talk to others about his inevitable death. We do, however, see him express his death to his friend, whom didn’t take the comment seriously because they both had a few drinks already. In some ways, the movie can be seen as a typical, Korean melodrama with the death of the kind, main protagonist and the background music.
Music is important to develop mood for movies. For this type of movie, background music helps add to the scenes to create different emotions, particularly sad ones. From the opening scene, we had a melancholy piano and oboe piece playing as Jung-woo rides his scooter through the streets. After another visit to the hospital, the same melody plays again when Jung-woo lay down on the floor to take a nap. Then, there was another melody that started up when Jung-woo saw Da-rim, a traffic officer, on duty through the window of a café. These were several of the melancholy pieces that contributed to the movie as a whole.
In “Christmas in August”, I noticed a very distinct style uncommon to many of the Hollywood blockbusters I’ve seen. Hollywood films usually have a quick transition between multiple shots that consists of a scene; in this film, there are longer takes filmed primarily in medium shot. It was very notable to me how almost all of the conversations in this movie used this particular style: the background isn’t very significant and the camera just focuses on the characters (usually only two involved) and the conversation they’re having. For example, Jung won and Darim have several conversations throughout the movie and the camera always cuts everything below the waist out. I noticed that there’s always food involved in these scenes as well. I don’t really see the significance of the food being present in these scenes but maybe Jung won likes feeding her because she mentioned how she has five siblings and they’re always fighting about how to divide food so that it’s fair for everyone.
Another scene that particularly struck me was when the grandma comes back in the rain to have her picture retaken. Jung won asks her why she wants a redo and she tells him that it’s going to be for her memorial photo. The camera shoots back and forth so that the audience sees both characters in a simple background: Jung won behind the camera in a black background and the grandma in front of the camera in a typical portrait background. Her answer serves foreshadows Jung won’s impeding death and I feel that it makes him reflect on his life at the present. After Jung won takes the picture, we see a brief still of a happy grandmother. Photographs are a prominent motif in this film, used to capture significant moments we don’t want to forget. I feel that seeing this grandmother’s picture reminds Jung won that he should live happy until the very end.
Christmas in August is an excellent film that focuses on the lives of the two characters, Jung-won and Da-rim. The subtlety of the plot greatly magnifies the simple, everyday life of Jung-won. There are not many long dialogues between characters; the film, rather, amplifies the surrounding, like the sound of nail clipping by the moonlight, or various conversation of the people who came in for family picture, as if Jung-won is eavesdropping. The film portrays realism of genre scenes (slice of life) accurately by focusing on the daily, humble life of Jung-won at home and at the studio. Personally, the short scenes of everyday life could be some of the most memorable scenes of the movie, as Jung-won’s hidden despair is reflected through them. For example, Jung-won lets out his frustration on his father, who couldn’t turn on the VCR by himself. But he later writes down the instructions on a piece of paper. That particular scene is sad, but very intimate as Jung-won is frustrated and worried that he will be leaving his old father behind. The subtlety of the film is dealt beautifully and artistically, like pages of a photoessay, especially with long shots of characters doing certain actions with no particular dialogues. Jung-won, a kind photographer, treasures every little moment in his life as he is aware that he does not have long to live. It is interesting to find many shots in the first-person perspective of Jung-won, especially when he is shooting pictures of various people. He takes pictures of his friends to remember his friendship since primary school. Jung-won takes Da-rim’s picture and treasures it in his box with the letter. As he is taking the grandmother’s self-portrait, he feels somewhat bittersweet and ironic, knowing that he must taken one for himself for the funeral altar. He narrates a few times about letting go of a person to be part of the “memory.” I think this is very important as an overall view of the film, because the film is telling the story of this humble, kind man who lived and died in the same neighborhood. And his memories are exhibited in the front window of his small studio.
The movie "Christmas in August" does not have the same kind of flash that many movies use to make things more exciting. There is little background music throughout the entire film. This gives a more realistic or possibly simplistic view of the life of the photographer. We can almost think along with him as he deals with his knowledge of what will happen to him. The lack of music gives it a more real life and real time feel.
Despite the somewhat bitter ending, the film does not necessarily leave a depressing feeling, in many ways it could be considered uplifting. Even though we know Jung Won's death is nearing, he continues his life with such a sunny disposition. In the end he has the opportunity to see Da Rim again, but makes the conscious decision not too. It could be because it would be too difficult for him, but it may also be to save her from having to deal with the knowledge that he is dying.
One of the most intense parts is when Jung Won takes his own memorial photo. We can clearly see the weight of what he is doing on his own face. The camera also starts by showing the chair alone, and then Jung Won walks into the shot. This gives the viewer a better understanding of the magnitude of a seemingly simple task. Jung Won has taken many peoples pictures, including the Grandma's which will also be used for a memorial. And in the end he too ends up in the same chair taking his own picture.
This melodrama film fascinated me because even though there was barely any conversation or verbal narration going on, we could still get a good grasp of what the protagonist was thinking and even what was occurring throughout the film. The film moves like a picture book. The majority of the film is filled with abrupt cuts. The scene where he was taking his medication and his visit to the hospital is an example where there were no conversation going, but we could understand the situation. We know that he is ill and that he was running short on time to live with the evidence of the pills and the hospital scene. Since the film does not reveal what his illness is, we also get the feeling that the main character is not only protecting his friends and family of worry, but the audience as well. This shows the protagonist’s character of not wanting pity and worry from anyone and also to live his life to the fullest in his last moments.
A particular scene that I found unique was when the protagonist, Jung-wong, was talking to Ji-won, an old classmate. The scene showed her sitting down next to him on a couch in his shop. The two have a small distance in between them and there was portraits shown behind them. What I found interesting was that the portraits behind them reflected the characters. Behind Ji-won was a portrait of a mother and child. This shows who she was since is currently a mother. The father was not shown in the portrait as well, which reflected what the Jung-won sister mentioned about Ji-won’s husband being addicted to gambling and drinking. The wife is pretty much on her own and taking care of her children. The portrait above the protagonist’s head was cut off because of how the camera was positioned. What was shown was just the black background on the portrait. Black is a color that is usually associated with despair, death, and sadness. This portrait behind Jung-won reflected his emotions, fear, and also foreshadowed his death.
Christmas in August is a film that utilizes the long shot, long takes, and music to create a love story that can be seen by many as realistic. The long shots and long takes were not only used to establish the background and surrounding but it also helped create the feeling of loneliness. An example of this is when Darim waited outside Junwon’s shop night after night but he never showed up. Us, viewers, knew that both protagonists were alone and lonely but the characters did not know why – creating a misunderstanding. The use of music really set the mood within each scene. If we listened to the background music, we were able to predict what’s going to happen. During the scenes where the protagonists were sad – the sound of rain can be heard or music drowning in the background is heard.
Another technique the director used was using the perspective that can be seen through the camera. Through this perspective, we were able to see the true feelings that each person felt. When Darim was in front of the camera, she looked very innocent and almost shy – like a girl who is falling in love for the first time. When Junwon took what would have been his memorial photo, it is clear that he was very sad and how much he didn’t want to leave this world. Through the lens of a non-living thing, the characters were able to express their true feelings. All of this added to the tugging of the heart for the viewers because we see what the protagonists couldn’t show each other. Both held out for a little too long, and by the time they realized that there were feelings – it was too late.
The movie "Christmas in August" is filmed in longer shots and therefore appears to be slower paced than other movies. There are also several long shots distance wise, so that viewers are able to see the settings that the scenes take place at, most notably being the photo studio, the elementary school, and the hospital. These three locations are shown repetitively and hold significance in relation to the protagonist Jungwon's life. Firstly there is his work life at the photo studio, secondly his remembrance of his past school life, and then there is the hospital where he receives his medicine and later treatment.
Effects and symbolism were tools used to extenuate emotions in this film. An example would be the use of thunder and lighting that occurs as Jungwon is home after Darim does not show up for their promised meeting. The interpretation could be either his concern for her or the realization of his condition and perhaps his concern for others' reactions to it. The scene where Darim looks at herself in the mirror and cries after not receiving any word from Jungwon also may symbolize her frustration and thinking that there may be something wrong with herself.
In my opinion, the most important part and the greatest use of cinematography in this film was the scene where Jungwon takes a photograph of himself in his studio. It was similar to how he took an older lady's picture. She told him that it would be used for her memorial picture. During this scene there was silence. The shot was also long yet I felt that it was intense. The close up of Jungwon's face was through the camera lens. From the lens, his expression appeared to be unreadable as to whether he was accepting his condition or afraid. Once the photograph was taken, there was a fade away and change to an actual memorial photograph. This signifies that Jungwon has passed away. The photograph is also in black and white, which gave me a sense of sadness. In conclusion I believe that this film appeared to be slow paced and perhaps without a plot but yet at the same time it was very emotionally powerful.
“Christmas in August” was a different love-movie in the sense that there were not many emotions but there was not many emotional scenes or dramatic scenes built up by the two lovers. Majority of the shots in the movie is a freeze fame shot. By using this technique, I believe that the director was trying to convey the unforgettable-ness in life. JungWon dies in the end of the movie, but it is still clear that Darim and JungWon both have feelings towards each other after his death. In the ending scene, the road is filled with snow and everyone’s footprints are what remain on this snow filled street. This conveys that the love between Darim and JungWon is referred to as the footprints which is continuously made and therefore showing that the love is constant. This is where the title seems interesting. There is no way there is a Christmas in August, but when we watch the whole movie, it makes sense if we interpret Christmas as snow. But the director also probably used the diction Christmas because Darim and JungWon met in August, and each of them was like a Christmas present for each other. Another aspect we should take note of is the portrait. Portraits and pictures appear frequently in the film, as JungWon is a photographer. After one’s death, the only thing that remains our photos, and I believe the director used this to emphasise the love between Darim and JungWon. JungWon when taking photographs, understood the significance of the photos, and therefore in the scenes where he is asked to take the portrait, he makes sure he takes the best. Towards the end, Darim was furious towards JungWon because he has not appeared to the store for a long time, but when she sees a picture of her in the studio, her anger deteriorates. This was the proof that they had mutual feelings. For the two of them, the photos represented their “eternal love”.
The film, Chirstmas In August, portrays Jung-Won's life and his surroundings in an unsaturated, sepia toned frame. Although most of the color does not have significance, red and yellow are the strongest contrasting color in this movie. I felt like I was watching a roll of moving “photos” instead of a regular film since the scenes depicted by Huh Jin-Ho seemed as if they were pictures connected by one another. Da-Rim and Jung-Won’s romance blossoms in a small sofa located in Jung-Won’s photo studio, and that specific area looks like a setting for taking picture. When Da-Rim enters or leaves his side, it seems as if she is entering and leaving Jung-Won’s life itself. Also, the seasonal change can be seen from the humid summer days to winter time with the changes in color and the natural phenomenon such as sun, autumn leaves, and snow.
Jung-Won, our main protagonist, displays two distinctive behavior in this movie; (1) he acts more like a child who is about to (2) leave this world. When we first see him in the movie, he is playing around in a school yard by doing pull-up bar exercise and sitting on a tire. He jokes around with the kids when they were choosing the prettiest girl among a group of students as if he is same age as them. He also hands over an ice cream to Da-Rim as a sign of apology. He spits out bunch of watermelon seeds with his sister and talks about how he placed Ji-Won, his first love’s photo in his exercise book in elementary school. Lastly, he quietly sleeps next to his father on a rainy day. We might call someone with these behaviors “kidults” nowadays, but Jung-Won’s action indicates how he wants to trace back to his past and remember what he had done and live young. He also prepares to leave his small world by having reunion, writing down the instructions for his father about how to play video and how to use machines in the studio, and taking self-portrait.
He is quite passive around the presence of Da-Rim from the very beginning. However, the reason why they have a consistent relationship is because Da-Rim is the one who always reaches out to Jung-Won and starts to question him in various ways. What I noticed while listening to them was the tone and the quality of the conversation. When they have question and answer time, Jung-Won first uses jon-det-mal to Da-Rim; this could be perceived as if he is being respective to her or as if he is stopping her from being close to him since he already knows that she will be left alone after his death. He completely stops using jon-det-mal when he sees Da-Rim outside of his studio. When they break the ice and Jung-Won starts using ban-mal, he accepts Da-Rim into his life.
The movie Christmas in August is a romance drama directed by Hur Jin-ho in 1998. It is clear that the director intended to use photography as an important key element in the movie. As the many scenes throughout the movie were shot in long takes, it makes an audience feel like they are looking at photos instead of watching a movie. Because of this effect, I was able to pay attention to every detail in the long takes because it was so still as if I was looking at a photograph. For example, in the film where Da-rim is outside Jungwon’s shop (when he is hospitalized), the scene is very still and slow, as if the audience is looking at a photograph instead of a movie scene. This slow and long take technique really grasps the audience’s attention and really allows an individual to better understand the character’s emotions.
As the main character Jungwon is a photographer, he takes pictures for a living. He takes family portraits, self-portraits, as well as funeral portraits. In one of the middle scenes, he takes a funeral portrait of an old, elderly woman. She comes back to retake her photo so that her last funeral portrait (a last photograph people will see of her at her funeral) looks nice. We can see that the elderly woman has acknowledged the fact that she will pass away soon. Towards the end of the movie, a similar situation is portrayed in the movie: Similar to the old woman who came in to take her funeral portrait, Jungwon takes a funeral portrait because he acknowledges his unfortunate fate of being fatally ill.
I personally did not like the ending; as Jungwon and Da-rim simply exchanges letters and they do not meet each other after their first date, the ending seemed too depressing for me. However, the ending is significant because there was a reason why he did not tell or see Da-rim. He did not want her to know he was fatally ill and he wanted to preserve his last few memories and moments of his life with Da-rim. Just like a photograph that is still and paused, he wanted to keep his relationship with Da-rim peaceful even after he faces his death. When Da-rim visits Jungwon’s photo shop after his death, she sees a portrait of herself as a display in his shop. This signifies that although he is no longer living, she will never be forgotten in his life (unlike his childhood love who asked him to take down her portrait).
“Christmas in August,” directed by Hur Jin-ho, is a movie about how the main character, Jung-won, lived the last couples of months before his death and about the way Jung-won dealt with his early death. I really like that the film began at a point that Jung won and his family already knew he was sick, so the audiences were actually getting to know his illness gradually during the film when he tried and wanted to create great memories with his families and his friends. For example, he played with his younger sister and asked his friend to buy him a drink. I think that the close relationships between characters are the key elements that make this film very touching and sad. Although there are only few scenes between Jung-won and his father, the emotions in those scenes are all so strong that we can easily understand the tight relationship between this family. I actually started to cry from the scene which Jung-won tried to teach his father how to use the video tape player. It is clear that both of them understood why Jung-won wanted to teach his father at that moment. The next scene after Jung-won left the room indicates that his father in fact knows how to do that but just pretends he doesn’t. I personally think it is because his father wants Jung-won to continue worrying about him and to continue staying with him. Also, the scene which Jung-won’s father stands outside his room being with him when he was in pain shows how much his father loves him without even saying a word.
Besides the relationship between his family, window seems to play an important role in the relationship between Jung-won and Darim. In this film, there are many shots that focus on windows; for instance, the scene Darim talks to Jung-won through the window, Darim breaks the window, and Jung-won looks at Darim through the window in a coffee shop. It seems to me that window represents the distance between them. Their relationship has never developed into intimacy in the film. During the film, we see both of them are getting interested in each other and are trying to get closer to each other. The scene that Darim talks to him through the window asking if she can enter suggests that there is still physical and non-physical distance between them. When the film entered the last half, Darim broke the window, which is in the meantime the obstacle and distance between them. For me, it seems that Darim now is ready to get closer and join Jung-won’s life; however, he is already not there. Therefore, the scene Jung-won looks at Darim through the window in the coffee shop represents the huge gap between them. Based on these scenes, I believe that window is also an important motif in this film.
Compare to what we’ve seen last Wednesday, Christmas in August was much more lack in vividness. I think this is because the movie is refusing to walk through typical climatic bursts out dramaturgy. On the other hand, it rather exposes the feeling in calm sense, not exaggerating by taking a portrait of main character. This shows how the revelation of sadness is simplified. After the movie, I’ve asked few people about the reaction. It seems they are confused including me, because the movie is surely dealing with death and sadness, which are very sophisticated, and various meanings exist in context. However, it is like tasting water. I don’t taste anything but I can tell my thirst is gone.
Window also has a thematic meaning. The window in photo shop, started to show up from the middle of the movie. When Jung-Won finds out about his first love’s unhappy life, the narration overlaps stating “ love becomes past”. In that bus scene, he was looking outside the window and some Korean song plays. Actually this song is from Sanulrim the Korean rock band. One line says, over the window, I think of old times. (창문 너머 어렴풋이 옛생각이 나겠지요) Jung-won and Darim meet through window. Several conversations are done placing window in the middle. Window means closed that can’t touch objects through it, but one can see through it. This leads to the scene where Darim is busy ticketing vehicles, while Jung-Won watches her through café window. Also it explains why Darim throws rock at the photo shop. In broad perspective, window has a resemblance to frame in camera. Through that window, Jung-won finishes his life with love, and Darim is remembered in smiles.
I may be overreacting but, it seems Jung-won is almost always offering a cup of coffee to Darim. In my translation, this is his subconscious refusing sleep(death). It appears again in other scenes. He woke up in the middle of the night, and moved over to his father’s room. Then he fell a sleep right next to him.
The movie is sad because of the way Jung-won prepares for his death in an off-handed manner. We know that death should make one feel anguished, but to see Jung-won handle it in a seemingly light-hearted manner makes us sympathesize with him more. We feel that he is suffering yet at the same time, doesn’t allow these emotions to show and instead, tries to joke about his situation. This makes his impending death even more poignant because it is not portrayed in a direct manner throughout the movie, but rather, is hinted at. It is particularly sad in one scene where an old lady prepares to take her own portrait after taking a photo with her family. Here, she is actually contrasted with Jung-won; both are dying, yet they do not show nor talk about their impending deaths. Instead, both of them brush their deaths away as if it is not a big deal, and instead appear to greet death with a smile. This evokes sympathy and makes the idea of death even more poignant and sad.
Also, as a photographer who can only take photos but not be part of the experience within the photos, Jung-won can only look in at the lives of people around him; but he is not really a part of them. Perhaps this is why, in the first half of the movie, almost all the shots have a picturesque quality; the composition and dimensions of the shots were such that they appear as beautifully arranged pictures. This is particularly so when Jung-won’s shop is shot from far, it looks like a pretty picture set against a pretty background. However, there is a change when Da-rim enters his life. In one scene when Da-rim sits on the couch in his shop, he stepped into her frame, thus stepping into her life. From then on, the picturesque shots appear to have more life and more moving elements; Jung-won is also part of the pictures now. However, as the pictures represent moments caught in time, Jung-won himself is also captured in his dying moments. This can also be seen during scenes of him sitting on the couch, when the outside lights sweep past him, it is as if he is being shot on camera; the yellowish lights also appear to signify the decay of time, telling us that Jung-won is dying. I especially like the scene when Jung-won was taking the last photograph of himself, where the shot zoomed into his name-plate on his camera - it appeared to represent the plate on his to-be-tombstone, and then zooms into that particular photo that was used during his funeral. The movie does not show him dying directly, but instead, does it through a photo instead, which again highlights the use of photos to represent life.
Christmas in August is a 1998 Korean melodrama film directed by Jin-ho Hur. Hur does well in portraying a feeling of isolation for Jung-won’s situation. A few scenes show Jung-won looking on at others through a window. One includes Da-rim speaking to Jung-won through his studio’s window. Even though it is a cute interaction between the two, the sequence is taken with shots viewing the characters walled off with muffled voices. Another more powerful scene occurs near the end after Da-rim has not seen Jung-won for a while and Jung-won observes Da-rim through the window of a coffee shop. The reflection from the window is used creatively to convey eye-line match as Jung-won watches Da-rim’s car appear. He places his blurred out hand in the foreground on the window of the next frame indicating how his condition has caged him away. The isolation that is created is not dissimilar to the identity of a photographer either which fits with Jung-won’s job.
However, the film’s deliberately drawn out scenes can be a bit excruciating. Although the long takes give the movie its friendly tone and causal pacing that mirrors Jung-won’s personality, there is a surplus that feels cheap. To elaborate, overdoing the stretching moments end up appearing like an excuse to extend the length of the film. Examples include the bus ride scene that takes a great length of time compared to the few lines of monologue that is given and other scenery shots establishing the next sequence that linger on. By overusing such techniques, the film appears lazy and leaves the viewer questioning the purpose.
Hur Jin-Ho’s debut film Christmas In August tells the bittersweet almost love story of a playful photographer, Jung-Won, whose life ends too soon due to some illness. The film opens with Jung-won happily riding his scooter through town. Although Jung-won is actively driving is scooter through town, the sequence, along with most of the film, uses a long take plus such static composition that the shot looks more like a photograph than an actual moving picture. In this particular scene, Jungwon’s stagnant position in the middle of the frame along with the steadiness of the camera allows the shot to give the illusion of immobility. Being a professional photographer, it is almost as if Jung-won’s own life has become a living photograph. Using the same illusion of a still shot, many transitory scenes in the film are of a local school through various seasons. The school represents the past and Jung-won’s growing nostalgia due to his impending passing. Throughout the film, Jungwon constantly asks his friends and family if they remember various past events. Jung-won seems to be literally stuck in a stasis of nostalgia until Da-rim is introduced. The only few fast moving shots in the film are in relation to Da-rim. When he visits the amusement park with Da-rim and rides a rollercoaster, the audience finally views the super-fast paced shot through Jung-Won’s perspective instead of viewing him passively like a photo. Although Jung-won’s premature passing does not allow their love to blossom, the shots of Da-rim and Jung-won sitting together in his office give the audience a tiny idea of what could have been by showcasing the pair in the center of the frame while surrounded by pictures of various life events they could have enjoyed together (e.g. family photo, child’s first birthday). Hur Jin-Ho’s static camera style along with the theme of nostalgia almost intermingles the present and the past creating a very poignant film about the passage of life and the power of memory.
Christmas in August was the movie that emphasizes the “memories”. His characteristics and purpose of life was shown through his job, as a photographer. The important part of his life was “memory”. Memory of his first love, Jiwon, of his several close friends, of his father and of his last love, Darim, is the main subject that is highlighted through out the film. He captures all the best moments of his life and keeps those moments in the frames of pictures. He doesn’t fall in love with other girls (after love for Jiwon), and that shows that he is captured and stuck in “memories”. At the end, he thanks to Darim who gave him the memories that last not only at those certain times in the frames but, the memories that will last forever. This last narration of thanking Darim describes a lot of things about him and his thoughts. Memories are in past tense. They are captured in past, even though you are full of memories, you have to progress from past to present and from present to future. From Darim, he realized that he was living and captured by the memories and didn’t progress to the future. The act of not telling Darim that he also likes her was one of the examples that he couldn’t progress to the future. All the reason behind his actions, were mainly because of his illness, and that illness made him hesitant about his love towards Darim. Another aspect that really caught my eye was the scene when the old lady came to take her funeral picture. She wanted to be remembered as pretty and happy person, and she comes back for another take. This act shows that we, as humans, want to be remembered as a good man or woman. From the beginning, Jungwon smiles at everyone, helps people and he was mostly kind and nice to everyone. Maybe, it could be his natural personality, but it is sure that he ,like the old lady, wanted to be remembered as a good, nice man.
This is movie, "Christmas in August", is divided with two sections: one half with conversations and the other half with silence. The first half illustrates the foreseen hardship of Jungwon and how he carefully develops relationship with Darim. The conflict between the one soon to be dead and the one with future begins as Jungwon is hospitalized. This is the moment where silence comes into place. Rather than explaining their emotions with conversation, the director encourages the audience to empathize with characters upon silence. Darim’s frustration and anger was expressed as she wanders around Jungwon’s studio, putting her letter through the door, and finally throwing a rock at the window. On the other hand, Jungwon's longing desire was captured from the other side of the window, as if he was locked into a space where he is unable to step out. During silent moments, shots were comparatively longer than the first half. I find that the director aimed to give a better expression of the actor and actresses because facial expression and gesture are the only modes to communicate with the audience. Throughout the movie Jungwon's surging emotions were often hidden in front of his family and friends. This may have been the foreshadow of his passive love that eventually ends up in the box, hidden.
Won Jae Chang In the film “Christmas in August”, Jungwon already knows that he has no future. He slowly and quietly prepares himself for death. Most of time, he always smile and seems to be calm. It shows that Jungwon has acquired the way to keep himself to be positive person. However, the few scenes in the film show that he is actually internally hiding his sadness. One of the powerful scene is at the police station. When Jungwon is drunk with his friend, he is enraged from hearing “shut up” and he suddenly yells “why do I have to shut up?” and starts to cry in front of people. His aggressive actions clearly show that he does not want to die. The scene when Jungwon is crying in his dark room, he tries to silence himself with a pillow. The scene when Jungwon tries to teach his father how to play video, he gets angry and frustrated over the fact that his father is unable to learn use of remote control. All of these scenes clearly illustrate that Jungwon is actually worried and scared about death. Throughout the film, the scenes were constantly slow. There were few close up shots(mostly for Jungwon). Most of the scene was like photographic shots. The romanticized piano music was included at specific scene to create mood like sadness or romance.
Christmas in August (1998) is a romance movie which portrays the humanistic and realistic love story. Unlike many movies or dramas, this movie doesn’t have a movie-like stories or scenes, but the movie is very similar to our ordinary lives. They get to know each other in each other’s ordinary life slowly, in a normal way. Even though the movie seems to be too tranquil, it is one of the effect that movie tries to portrait as Jungwon and Darim’s love as they start to acknowledge their love towards each other.
Jungwon and Darim first meet each other in each other’s everyday life. Movie flows slowly as it portrays Jungwon’s daily life and his life after meeting Darim. Even though the movie is a love story between Jungwon and Darim, it doesn’t have a emotional love scenes, but rather, the movie depicts little stories happening between the two main characters. They share stories, communicate, spend time together; just like everybody else does in ordinary life.
Jungwon, the main character is a photographer and owns a photo shop. In the movie, there are several scenes when the movie shows the photographs or Jungwon taking photos. I think ‘photographs’ implies how Jungwon tries keep memories of his surroundings and people through the photos that he takes. Taking picture implies how Jungwon tries to remember his people even after he dies, and the photos shown in the movie portrays Jungwon’s life before his death. I think the movie tries to show every little moments of his life by setting the main background of the movie as a photo shop and Jungwon’s as a photographer.
Hi Mr. Chung. This is Christine Kim. I'm the girl who said I'd write two posts this week so I don't have to post anything for the horror week. I'm be commenting on today and wednesday.
"Christmas in August" was indeed a very slow and nonverbal movie, but I think there was a purpose for that. The long takes and silence, I believe, truly depicts reality. It's as if we are in the room with that character, just spying on them. In real life, nobody is constantly talking. In movies, the take would be much shorter, but this movie had very long takes. Also in movies, when people are having a phone conversation, you can hear the person on the other end of the line. But, in Chung Won's conversation with his friend, you only hear what Chung Won says. There are also many natural sounds emphasized in the movie such as nail cliping, water running, rain, etc. I counted the movie only played music four times. Many of the sounds were natural. I believe that's the directors purpose for his long takes and silence. To make the movie more relatable and a realistic.
This Korean cinema showed many korean elements that make the movie unique. It showed school pictures, kimchi, traffic cops, people filling gas, sitting on the floor during meals, and hanboks.
The one motif that stood out to me was windows. Many times, we see Darim looking into the studio window. We also see a vivid scene of Chung won washing the window and while he's rinsing the window, he sees a distorted Jiwon. Throughout the movie, there are many window shots. I believe the windows play the same role as photography, capturing the moment. the window pane being the frame of the picture. You look through the window and see a "picture". You may like the "picture" or "view in the window", but the moment doesn't stay forever.
The movie, Christmas in August, is about a dying man who runs a photography studio and falls in love with a meter maid woman. In this movie, there are not much of dramatic plot, magnificent visuality or much dialog, but I realized that the subtleness of this movie led the audience to focus on the characters’ emotion or their facial expressions. Two main characters, Jung Won and Da Rim, do not declare their relationship, but the audiences have a sense of how they feel about each other. Also, Jung Won never talks about serious illness or never shows how much he suffers from it. However, by showing how his relationships with his family and his friends change, we can assume his situation naturally.
Personally, I liked the way the movie put the audience in such moods by having awkward silences between dialogs of two characters, and the way it set the tones. The film is quiet and open for interpretation that aids the audience to see the characters in depth. I found this movie has an appeal from the fact that the way it says its story is not too obvious but it soaks into the audiences’ head with all the moods and emotions of the characters and situations.
Although the plot of “Christmas in August” is about a terminally ill man, the way the film was shot created a very peaceful and serene atmosphere that was enjoyable to watch. As the main character progresses through the denial, anger, and finally acceptance of his sickness, the film overall instills a feeling of serenity and appreciation.
First of all, the director utilized very long takes and also kept the camera stationary in both angle and position as the actors and the scene continued to progress. These techniques made it seem like the audience was an inanimate object watching the world pass, which created a very realistic setting in that none of the shots were overdone or too fancy. As if watching his life in real time through unedited, and unscripted moments, the beauty of Jeong-won’s life is revealed. By keeping it simple, the director emphasizes and embraces the most real and beautiful but unfortunately often overlooked or forgotten moments in life.
Another characteristic of the film that added to the simple but wistful atmosphere of the film was the lack of dialogue and background music. In many scenes throughout the movie, only the natural sounds of the environment can be heard. This detail only furthers the realism the director portrays through the mundane and most ordinary moments of Jeong-won’s last months. Instead of depicting flowery moments of his life, the movie focuses on the simple joys he experiences on a daily basis, like eating watermelon with his sister or making dinner with his father. Ultimately these elements combined create the lasting message to think about and appreciate those small moments in life that we often take for granted.
Individuals reflect their significant stress and interests in pursuing and enjoying their memories. Memories illustrate not only the fragments of their lives in the past, but also a source of the unforgettable and uncountable values that provide a sense of love. Especially the desire for keeping memories is well reflected in the photo, which distinctively stresses its significance throughout the film. Photo shares commonness with life in that they have restrictions. As life has death, the end of everything, photo reflects memories that are not irrevocable and remain as they were. By using contrasting perspectives, the correlative relationship of life and love is strongly enhanced, which is especially visible in the memories of the childhood love of Jungwon and his desire for eternal love with Darim. The childhood love of Jungwon offered an undesirable memory in vain, which is filmed in a blurry scope whereas his sincere love for Darim vividly illustrates his desire that the memories he shared with her could remain eternally. Furthermore, portrayal of the two main protagonists, Jungwon and Darim with a contrasting perspective effectively visualizes the sad and inevitable realities they experience. Jungwon lives a time-limited life with a fatal illness while Darim just started her new (career) life as a traffic officer, which also provides an insight that the life of Jungwon signifies restrictions, death whereas that of Darim reflects a source of possibilities. In addition, funeral portrait of Jungwon signifies his acceptance of his early death and an inevitable subjugation before the nature.
As two protagonists were viewed with contrasting perspectives, usage of long-take among various cinematic techniques notably enhances such aspects. It provides calmness, which not only enables the audience to linger and concentrate more effectively on the scenes as if they look at the photos, but also expresses the emotions, loneliness. Moreover, windows symbolize a picture frame and create a living portrait. As clearly discussed, Jungwon’s portrayal of his childhood love is blurry, meaning that she doesn’t a place in his life anymore and illustrating the reality that windows are unable to change the photo’s reality, which is also stressed in the stillness. On the contrary to the fast-paced movies of today, slow-paced feature is strongly inter-wined with the significance of photo as well. Christmas is present in the last month of December during a year and December reflects the month of love as well. However, August is the last month of the life of Jungwon, which ignited his desire of love and such contrary usage of title significantly illustrates the shift in the state of emotions of Jungwon.
Christmas in August is a Korean drama that depicts the life of a middle-aged photographer facing the inevitability of an early death due to disease. It focuses on how he deals with daily life knowing he will die soon. It seems as though the director, Jin-ho Hur wishes to create a film that celebrates the simple things in life that create happiness. One of the ways he does this is by creating a blossoming relationship between Jung-won and Da-rim. However the relationship is never allowed to fully develop because of Jung-won’s early death. It seems that instead of focusing on the sadness of Jung-won’s death the director hopes to create a feeling of happiness by focusing on the small things that made Jung-won happy. Hur does this by depicting Jung-won and Da-rim happiness when they are together. Throughout the movie a feeling of sadness is lingers with the audience, the only times the audience feel happiness is when Jung-won and Da-rim do small things together, such as when Jung-won takes Da-rim’s portrait. Hur conveys a message of enjoying life’s simple things because one can never know when death will come.
Another way director Hur conveys his message is by using the reoccurring symbol of photography. In the movie Jung-won’s photographs symbolize his desperate attempt to preserve the memories of his life. In the beginning he is content with going to work everyday and being surrounded by his memories, which are captured through his photos. However as the movie progresses and Jung-won begins to accept that his death is nearing, he begins to free himself from only reminiscing and actually goes out with his friends and even Da-rim, in hopes of creating memories for not just himself but others. In the end, Jung-won’s self portrait symbolizes his final acceptance of death and is able to die without regrets.
In “Christmas in August”, Director Hur Jin-ho used several techniques to convey the mood of the movie as well as the emotional feelings of the characters to the audience. Sequence shots were used in the beginning of the film to reveal the life of Jung-won. Even though he was seriously ill, theses scenes showed his peaceful and calm attitudes toward life and death. He’s always wearing a smile on his face and enjoying and interacting with his environment even in the hospital (where he was making funny faces to a child).
There are numerous long takes and still shots in the movie. For example, when Jung-won was at the funeral of his friends’ father, the camera stayed still, capturing the outside of the funeral house for more than 30 seconds. I think this is a way to focus audience’s attention on the image. The audience also gets to reflect on the details and the messages of the scenes. While the audience’s eyes were on the funeral house, they can feel that Jung-won’s thoughts were on it (and possibly on death) too. The long and still take helps the audience to feel what Jung-won had felt in the situation. Another long take that lasted for almost a minute occurred when Jung-won offered ice cream to Daerim under a tree. This scene was really beautiful and warm in color. The long take helps the audience to feel the warmth and pleasantness of this scene and foreshadows that something sweet is going to happen between them. The frequent use of still shots reminds audience of photographs, which corresponds with Jung-won’s job and how he and Daerim met as well as the motif of reminiscence.
The use of non-diegetic background music also helps with conveying moods and emotions. Gentle and sweet music accompanied scenes such as Jung-won and Daerim eating ice cream together, Daerim taking a nap in the studio, and them riding automobiles together. The blissful music revealed the happiness the characters felt when they were together. When Jung-won watched Daerim through the window during the last scenes, background music sounded again. This time, the melody tying up with the story helps to bring out the sadness of Jung-won and deepens the emotional feelings of the audience.
Christmas in August (1988) is filmed very realistic and humanistic. This is about Jung-won and Da-rim's love story starting from summer to midwinter. And, I guess they get to know each other in August, because of the title. Also, I guess Jung-won dies around Christmas in midwinter. This movie reminds me first love, and unforgettable love through life. Jung-won and Da-rim get to know each other, and love permeates slowly between them. Da-rim seems to start falling in love with Jung-won because of his chilled-out atmosphere, and maturity. Jung-won seems to love Da-rim's innocence, pureness, and thoughtfulness toward him. They get closer than before when they go to the amusement park. They hold hands when they ride rollercoaster, and fold their arms when Jung-won tells Da-rim a scary story. This movie has many implications. Photograph is the most representative implication regarding love, memories, current states. Jung-won puts away Ji-won's photograph from the display when he meets her. This implies that he gets over her, and his love toward her changes to one part of his memories. However, Jung-won puts Da-rim's photograph on the display continuously even after his death. This means that he still loves her. Moreover, he narrates that he thanks to Da-rim for making him die with love, not memories.
Title of the movie Christmas in August refers to its story about a young protagonist of the movie awaiting his death in winter.
Unlike other recent movies, Christmas in August does not deal with provocative topic. Watching the movie makes me to feel tranquility and serenity yet the movie is sad and bitter. The main character of the movie is named Jung-Won (Seok Gyu Han) who runs a photo studio. He dwells in time-limited life but practices kindness to those around him. However, sometimes he feels sad and bitter but he keeps these feelings to himself.
Many romantic movies consist of striking episodes, repetition of coincidences, and romantic and colorful events, but this movie is an exception. Lovers in this movie develop feelings towards each other through ordinary day-to-day events and finally they realize it is the love that they experience. calm and crush each other produces a small buildup of feelings that you feel feelings of love for each other that differentiates it from other films seem Mallow is water. Also this movie reminds of precious memories of first love that is fresh and youthful. Scene of two potential lovers was directed so naturally and plainly. Parking enforcement officer Da-Rim went to photo studio that Jung-Won runs because she needed a photo. Jung-Won, around this time, was anxious after he went to his friend’s funeral and feared about his upcoming death. While he was emotionally weakened, Da-Rim’s entrance to his life was like a beam of light. Both of them were honest about their feelings—they approached to each other because they wanted to know each other. Their stories were made up of ordinary events.
In this movie, Jung-Won was portrayed as a person who accepts death with calmness. And, he was indeed a kind man to Da-Rim, his lover. While living his life to the fullest by practicing goodwill and kindness to others, Jung-Won was faced with sadness from the life of a terminally ill. Sometimes, his depressed and gloomy state is captured in the movie when he smokes cigarettes in the back by himself and takes photo of himself for his funeral, but these behaviors are never exposed to others. When people are around him, he never loses his smile. This movie tells us that life of terminally ill can be interpreted differently. When Jung-Won is discharged from the hospital after knowing how badly his illness has progressed, he stops meeting with Da -Rim. He wants to still see Da-Rim so desperately, but he just sees her from a distance. He begins to calmly let go of parts of his life, and this aspect shows how this movie is differentiated from others. In the last scene, Jung-Won leaves behind some phrases that give viewers a refreshing jolt: “Like countless pictures of my memory, I know that love will ultimately be mere memories. But you did not end up in memories. I want to say thank you for allowing me to leave while keeping our love. “ These phrases showed that when Jung-Won faced his death, he was not sad and his first love for Da-Rim was a blessing in his life.
Emerson Sosa As an amateur photographer, I enjoyed the shots taken in "Christmas in August." It made the relationship between Jungwon and Darim much more "picturesque." A lot of shots were constructed by placing both main characters in a medium close shot in which only their upper bodies are shown with little background around them. This makes the feelings between Jungwon and Darim more intimate and idealistic. One shot that I remember in particular is when Jungwon and Darim are eating ice-cream together in Jungwon's photoshop. Both are placed in a medium close-up shot which looks as if someone told them to pose in that position. Their legs are not showing and the frames of the pictures around them cannot be clearly distinguished. This take looks as if it could be found on a picture frame in front of his shop. Both are smiling as well as both are eating ice-cream like children. A very innocent and candid pose, it makes the take exude a perfect moment in time that has been captured by film but could easily be found in photography. This style of cinematography goes well with the theme that pictures fade with time. All the poses that Jongwon took were momentary moments of apparent happiness. Jungwon would tell all his clients to smile when he took the picture. Soon after, that smile would disappear and reality would return to the frame. In the same way, Jung-won eating ice-cream with Darim would be short lived. He would never eat ice-cream with Darim again and the joy that Jung-won would have would only be a moment in time due to his fatal illness. The art of photography can capture reality; at the same time, it can also capture a facade of someone. Through the cinematography of "Christmas in August," the takes time and time again show that Jung-won's happiness with Darim is just a facade for how he really feels and will fade with time. Depressing but that is how humans cope with life. Beautiful film.
The movie "Christmas in August" is about a terminally ill man's love story. The main character Jungwon is a photographer and his photo has constrast meanings in this movie. For young boxer and elementery students, the photo showed future-oriented meanings. Elementery students start to experience what love is. In the young boxer's photo, it looks like he's preparing for his first match and he kept smiling. Both photos of the elementary student's and the boxer was depicting the starting of new experiences in thier life.
But for Jungwon, he used the photo as a medium to prepare his death which is ending. While he was taking last photo with his friends, jungwon seem serious with his gathered hands because he knows that it will be last photo with his friends. But unlike Jungwon, his friend Chulgu was drunken and stagger that seemed kind of funny and also a sad part at the same time. Jungwon takes photos of the printer with polarloid camera for his father. He made a visual guidline for his father so that he could use it on his own after Jungwon's death. This is another example of Jungwon preparing for his death. I liked how the photo was used to compare both past and future.
"Christmas in August" is a very symbolic movie. Unlike many other films that elaborately explains the story and theme in a realistic matter, this movie tries to convey the theme rather in a symbolic manner by repeating objects, scenes, and using various camera techniques. The director Jin-Ho Hur is focusing a lot in showing how the film grammar and tools can work to understand the full movie rather than by explicitly presenting performance and story plot. Window is an essential tool to explain the emotional distance between Jung-won and Daerim. In the first part we can see Daerim only through the window. We don't see her directly. She is either reflected from the window light or she is seen through the window. Also, she is always in the background of the camera. Jung-won is always in the front ground whether he is teaching his student or working with his camera. However, this distance between these two characters melts down as Daerim asks his horoscope and says that they will be a good match. At that moment, Daerim enters into the foreground and she enters in Jung-won's life slowly. Jung-won is a very solitary character. In the beginning of the movie he lays down on the ground, sits on the desk, and works in his camera studio alone. His method of moving around and communicating with people is when he rides his scooter. He coincidentally encounters his ex-girlfriend as well as Daerim many times when he rides his scooter. Scooter is an object that symbolize his social life. He always seem to be alone riding it just passing by people and saying hi. However, this changes when Daerim takes a ride on his scooter, and keeps entering in his life. There are many shots taken perceiving through the window. Whenever, a window is shown between Jungwon and someone it explains the emotional distance between the two characters just like when Jung-won is washing the window and his ex-girlfriend came to visit in his studio. Water is another distinctive form that constantly explains the . Jung-won drinks the water when he eats the pill, he washes the window, he washes the vegetable and he washes the dishes. Also, the water comes in a form of rain and water in the fishtank. The water means that he is cleaning up and preparing for his last of his life. One of the main action that shows the bond between the characters is by sharing and eating something together. He eats fish with his friend, he eats tangerine with Daerim and he eats watermelon with his sister. Also, he always eat with his family. Symbolism was also conveyed through a technical form. The long take camera shots show his stagnated life that he is living in. He lives in a mundane life that he cannot help but waiting for his death. The camera is in very long takes in the beginning and it doesn't have any movements such as panning, tilting or tracking. However, the camera first makes its movement when he starts to begin his love with Daerim. It pans along them and tracks, which starts to show how Jung-won is now more feeling alive.
The Film “Christmas in August” consists of a simple plot about a photographer Jungwon and his life story after receiving a death sentence. He spends time mostly in his photo studio and at home cooking for his father and sister. He seems quiet, happy and somewhat boring but his cheerful and positive personality does not drag down the mood of the overall atmosphere in the movie. Jungwon conceives death as kind of a phase, which every one undergoes and faces it with no fear. He thinks of his mother who had passed away, looks back at old photographs, writes down directions for his father, and takes his own photograph. These scenes were shown for a considerably long time with long takes that allows for the audience to be part of Jungwon and feel what he is going through. Although the main theme of the movie seems to be portraying Jungwon’s life, it is also about Daerim’s first love with Jungwon. They share precious moments, and find some common ground of interest in pictures. Photograph in this movie represents just more than a piece of memory, but it conveys the message of storing one’s whole life that consist love. At the end of the movie, Jungwon concludes and says that he is happy to die with love, not memories. It means that the person who remains in Jungwon’s heart forever is Daerim. Unlike many other romantic movies out in the media with the same, repeating elements that make it hard to differentiate, this movie was set and developed on a day to day basis of a normal person, and features a story of an innocent young love.
In the movie, Christmas in August, the detailed formal elements such as mise-en-scene and cinematography created a rewarding experience to the past.
Personal: Film strips, black and white pictures, blue fans, and etc. Who uses film strips nowadays with the digital inventions? or take old black and white pictures for money when there are filters to create the authentic look with an iPhone app? or etc.? It was amazing to compare how much the world has changed. Therefore, I was in awe of the mise-en-scene because I'm so used to the modern world and inventions.
Cinematography, I've noticed that there were many long-takes; these long-takes made the movie seem even longer than the previous films. Although the over emphasis of these clips felt unnecessary, it manifested each character's moods. I personally enjoyed watching all of the "self-portrait taking" scenes. From the girl with the weird hairstyle, the girl, the grandma, and then... him. A girl -> miss -> (missing mrs.) -> grandma = a life cycle. Then, him -fading to his memorial picture.
So what? what did this film mean to me? I'm not quite sure. It started with "live life positively" until he got drunk and started to cry... And then, I started to feel sorry for the man because he never got to get married or even go out with the girl that likes him back. And then it ended. Happily? He left the world liking the girl that likes him back. But life moves on...?
Christmas in August. After I watched the movie i started write down some words and scenes that were impactive. through the first scence which is the hospital scene, I realized the main character 'Jung won' is sick. After that he ride a Motorcycle to get back his studio. Those Three places and object were linked the characters and emotions.
Photo studio was most important place i this movie because there were love, death, preparing, memories, recoding, hate at the sametime. Usually photo studio is for recording the moments of specific time in a paper. In a photo, people leave the happy and sad memories to remember. When 'Da-rim' came to the photo studio, the memory of love begin. With smiling and tlaking Jung won and darim started feel love each other. during they making the memories some connected happenings occured. Old women took the photo in the photo studio in the morning and came back in evening. She took the photo when she is going to use for funeral. When she didn't laugh in the moring but she laugh in the evening. I realized that she was carfully think herself of the photo. This scene was overlayed with the scene that jung won taking a photo himself that he will use for his funeral. This behavior was for preparing the death. He also, write down how to use the machine that printing the photos. This scene was also for preparing the death. Many lovely secnes were showed in the studio such as drinking beer in the studio, and many tlaking scenes. However, I also could see da-rim's emotional change. Da-rim love jung won so she always visit the studio but at the moment of jung won is gone, her emotion changed in to hate. That's why she throw the rock in to the studio's glasses and tried to remove some parts of the happy memories. At the end of the movie, the display of photo changed old girfriend or lover to Da-rim. In this scene, i also could see the change of emotion of Jung won.
I think red motorcycle is the kind of massenger that hop in to many people and locations. Through the red bike jung-won could back to the memories and came back to present. he met the old girfriend while he was riding a motorcycle and it connected both jung won and her. Also, Jung won and Da-rim's love started by motorcycle riding. Red bike connected the place to place. Home to studio, studio to hospital, and every places connected with bike.
Last, the hospital is the location that he preparing he's death. the medicine also showed he have not much time to live.
There were some interesting scenes that captured my mind. While Jung won prepare the death, he tried to teach how to turn on the video to his father. In this scene, i could feel how much he loves his father. the movie was a memory of the father with his wife. Thus jung won wanted to keep his father's memory after he died. Also, when the rain harshly fall in the summer time, I could see he is in nervous of the death. the thunder stroke at the out side and it was noisy. He woke up and determined to sleep with his father. In this scene, he was a nervous and wanted to be relax in family.
I think this movie showing the people's instinct when they love, nervous, hate, and so on.
Christmas in August is a very subtle film. It regularly utilizes noticeably long takes, often without much action in the shot or plot advancement to account for, but this method is essential for getting across the point of the film, which relates to simplicity. One example of this is in the scene where the main character, Jung-won, is eating watermelon with his sister. The camera lingers as their conversation comes to a lull and they spit they humorously spit out the seeds. These extended moments help to show the awkwardness and monotony of his daily life while also highlighting the strong bonds these people share. Still, however, that seems to be enough for him and he keeps a smile, even in the face of death. Jung-won is very interesting and has a lot of depth. He laughs and jokes to escape his discomfort and his pain, never truly expressing his anxieties to anyone. Instead of going out and fulfilling some sort of last-minute “bucket list”, which is often expected of film characters in these situations, he chooses to continue with his quiet, average existence, which says a great deal about his personality and his values. Alternatively, he quietly deals with the reality of his looming demise, making sure everything is taken care of.
He didn't seem to be looking for love, but more stumbled across it with Darim. Their romance was short-lived, but playful and sincere, which is reflected in the use of different camera techniques. The camera is very expressive in the sense that it seems to convey what Jung-won is feeling throughout the film. Medium shots are used in interactions among characters, only adding to the understanding of the intimate feelings between them. This is true, not just with Darim, but also with his family and his friend when they go out drinking, showing the importance of these otherwise insignificant encounters to Jung-won. Shots become somewhat more dynamic and varied, however, when Darim and Jung-won are together, utilizing more panning techniques instead of static ones, showing the impact she has had on his simple life. The camera slowly zooms in on Darim's face as the two walk together outside, eventually cropping Jung-won out of the shot, as if to point out the moment of realization of her feelings for him. The themes of love transcending all things and fate are present in the film, which are commonly used in Korean melodramas. I think this could be related to the existence of Buddhist ideals being deeply rooted in Korean culture, especially in the sense that people and possibly their feelings exist forever, even beyond this life. The film makes jumps in time, but it becomes easy for the viewer to fill in the blanks, such as when he takes his final self portrait and jumps to the photo for the memorial. The viewer is just left to assume his death, which the director chooses to omit. In the typical style of Korean film, there is no shocking conclusion, or any definite conclusion at that. The characters don't get to say goodbye an life just moves on. In a way, one might even find this more true-to-life approach to film to be much more tragic, rather than being sad on a superficial level. To me, this leaves a more lasting emotional impact than something that is well-defined and final, creating commentary on the fleeting nature of love and life, as well as the importance of subtle emotions, and gestures, simple joys, and human connection.
In the movie, "Christmas in August," by director Jin-ho Hur, the main theme of the movie was life and love and that one cannot overcome fate. The movie had a lot of elements that described and illustrated love between different characters; between Darim and Jung Won, between father and son, between sister and brother, and between Jung Won's first love and him even though that love was never meant to be.
The movie started out foreshadowing the death of the main character, Jung Won. Many elements like the medicine from hospital, death of relative, telling his friend that he is dying in a joking way, close up scenes of his sister whenever Jung Won mentions anything about hospital, sickness, etc clearly showed how death is going to take place in his life. When he was slowly preparing for his death, a young woman, Darim, comes into a picture of Jung Won's life. All the love takes place in the Photo Studio, which symbolizes memory, that Jung Won own, and a lot of different stuff happens in the same place. Taking a picture of an old woman who is preparing to die--which demonstrated that all people die and Jung Won will not be able to overcome what is already clear to happen. Photo Studio also was a place where Darim and Jun Won got very close and stacked a little memories one by one.
This movie is very romantic but at the same time, it is sad and bitter at the end because Jung Won dies at the end without letting Darim know. At the end he mentions that it was a great privilege to have someone like Darim to fall in love with because it was very pure love that he will never be able to forget. However, I was confused and mad a little because it felt like he did not deal with the truth and his heart even when he was dying.
Although death could be the human being’s greatest fear, this movie ‘Christmas in August’ portrayed how a man prepares himself toward death. The director captures the mundane life of dying Jungwon while he looks back at his life and accepts death (which has no future). The way Jungwon realistically faces his death was very memorable. He begins to organize his belongings that will be left behind and also relationships around him; with most respect, he prepares his death for himself and for people he loves. He sometimes forget fear while enjoying his remaining time with others but when he’s alone cutting his toenail, alone in dark, he cannot help himself but cry silently. He tries to overcome the fear and see what is best for his loved ones. Lots of symbols were embedded in his ordinary days. (These were used to show multiple layers of meaning, foreshadowing, and also as pattern to link scenes after another.) Photography was a good example of understanding the characters; it may have captured what is in front of the camera but becomes a link to memories. The show window at his studio reflected his compassionate relationship with Darim. (more examples would be scooter, ice cream etc.) The director shaped love in many different forms, not only he depicted love between Jungwon and Darim, he focused big portion of the film on the love between his friends and family. The unique scenes, symbolic props, and the smallest detail helped me to get better understand of Jungwons thoughts and how he got to the ‘acceptance’.
In the film's earlier scenes, Han's portrayal of Jung-won as a seemingly happy-go-lucky protagonist may mislead some viewers into questioning the veteran actor's thesping abilities, as it seems that his character in a perpetually good mood, laughing everything off. However, as more is revealed about him, it is apparent that this jovial demeanor is Jung-won's 'defense mechanism', disguising the difficult truth about his condition from others...and himself. Despite his inner turmoil and inability to share his innermost thoughts with others, there is a quiet dignity in how Han portrays Jung-won, from the mundane details of his daily routine to the film's weightier moments. Without the benefit of dialogue, Han is able to speak volumes with the subtlest of facial expressions, such as in what may be the film's most powerful moment, when he expresses his heartfelt affection for Da-rim while watching from afar. Complementing Han's performance is Shim's award-winning portrayal of Da-rim. There is an earnest quality to her performance, and like her co-star, much of it relies on the subtlety of expression and non-verbal cues. From her initial appearance as a demanding customer, to her growing intimacy with Jung-won, and finally to her heartbreak as Jung-won's lack of courage gets the better of him, Shim is an integral component of the story's emotional core, as well as part of the film's ultimate tragedy. In addition to developing a strong following at the South Korean box office, "Christmas in August" swept the Korean Film Awards in 1998, landing Best Film, Director, Actress, and Cinematography, all well deserved. This is a singular romance in which no one actually says, "I love you" or displays any other such overt signs of affection, yet the emotional undercurrent is no less stirring. The subtle approach taken by director Hur Jin-ho, as well as the powerful yet restrained performances of leads Han Suk-kyu and Shim Eun-ha, make "Christmas in August" an absolutely unforgettable motion picture.
Hae Jung, Min
ReplyDeleteThroughout the movie, long-take scenes with limited conversation were dominant. Accustomed to the fast-pace of recent movies, it was odd to see such a long scene at first. The whole flow seemed a bit unnatural until the sister of Jeong-Won, the protagonist, told him to let her know when he goes to hospital, implying that Jeong-Won had a serious disease that needed to be taken care of. After finding out about his illness, the whole movie seemed different, as if I was looking from the perspective of someone who knew the limited amount of time available to live, and then, the whole movie seemed natural. Long takes reflected the calm attitude towards his disease and life. Also, these takes were used to show the emotion between the two protagonists Jeong-Won and Darim, the girl Jeong-Won fell in love with. Long take expressed the love for each other when filming Jeong-Won and Darim tilting the umbrella to each other’s side to prevent the other from getting wet.
Adding to the long-take scenes, another uniqueness of this movie is that there were several implicit messages given via the limited conversation and dialogue. For instance, the director, at first, did not explicitly tell the audience that the girl (Jee-won) is someone Jeong-won used to like, but showed us via the awkward conversation on a road continued with the close-up of the picture of a younger version of her implying that she was important to him. The director also used weather and background to implicitly express the character’s emotion: When Darim was waiting for Jeongwon while he was at hospital, her emotion of feeling lonely was reflected in the falling leaves. Even though this movie had many more aspects that should be pointed out, I chose to discuss about these two key characteristics, long-take and implicit messages through limited dialogue and background, because it not only gave me a chance to relax throughout the movie and think back of my life at the end, whether I am missing out from these types of beauty in life while living busy, but also the reason it was possible to deliver this type of emotion within less than 100 minutes is because these two were the unique characters, which are able to be shown in a film, the media that shows a part of life focusing on certain aspects and able to touch the audience’s emotion.
Seungyoon, Mok
ReplyDeleteChristmas in August is very famous movie in Korean film history. I have heard about this movie many times but have not seen this because it was released 15 years ago, in 1998. There was not chance to see this movie. So, it was good chance to see this beautiful movie as many people say it. Christmas in August is the story of one dying man. He has very serious ill. Therefore, he is going to die. He is a photographer who has own photo studio and he meets one girl who is a parking control police. They are getting know and like each other. But, she does not know he is ill. He keep this secret till the end. Although they like each other, he dies in the last minute of the movie.
When I heard the outline of the story, I imagine this movie is very sad because it is the story of dying man. I just guess that his family, the parking control police girl, and even he would be sad for his death. But, unlike my guess, this movie was so calm and composed. I feel so realistic. He does not express his feeling about his death. He just accept and wait for the death. He does not speak out about his ill. Just circumstance around him explains his real feeling. Absolutely, he is sad, is afraid of death, and has an anger for that. However, he is quite and calm. This movie does not try to make viewers sad and cry, it just shows the reality of dying man and silently explains feelings of dying man. The last love between he and she is also not grandiose. The feeling they experience is definitely love. Besides, it is the last love for him before he dies. But, its feeling is not so big. They do not cry together and feel sad about saying goodbye. Even, she does not know his sickness. He and his father's story also does not "tell" the sadness. It just shows something, something they feel.
This film is very realistic and calm. It make viewers actually "feel" and "think". This movie does not tell and express, it shows and make me feel. So, I liked this film. I liked the way of storytelling, moderated acting, and the music which can explains their feelings.
The long take. This film was full of them especially when it came to developing the relationship between the two main characters, but why was it used? We’ll see that it is used to make us believe we are looking at a series of pictures rather than a movie. First we look at the background of the main character, Jungwon. He is a single, middle-aged, photoshop, owner who has still not gotten over his first love who is now in a bad marriage with two kids. Kim Darim is a young, single lady who works as a traffic cop. We first see signs that Darim is falling for Jungwon. Jungwon doesn’t respond because he his dying. He has personally come to terms with his coming death which can be noted from an early quote where he is sitting in the empty playground saying that he would sit on empty playgrounds and think of his late mother and remember that eventually everyone dies and there will be no trace, nothing left. But in these days there are hints left as to those who were left behind. Those hints are photos and that is why the director chose to use long takes. Jungwon is a photo shop owner. He takes photos for people and even takes peoples memorial photos, the trace of people lost. By using these long takes during the developing moments of the relationships development it is as if we are looking at photos of this budding relationship. One of the better examples of this is when Jungwoo is in the hospital and out of contact with Darim. Darim is waiting outside of the photo shop. The camera is still and her movements slow. Its as if we’re looking at this photograph rather than video. This long take let’s us take it all in and consider the situation. We see her drift off screen and are stuck with a medium range shot of the photoshop. Is this a photo or video? It’s difficult to tell until she suddenly comes back into frame and throws a rock through the window, breaking our illusion of looking at a photo. Photographs were a central concept of this film and that is why the director chose to use so many long takes to make us feel as if we’re looking at photographs of this couple that could not be.
ReplyDeleteAnother example of this concept is when he was writing directions for his father. His father was old and unable to adapt to modern technologies and was very reliant on his son. We see the book in the background “마술과 사진” which translates to “Magic and Photo”. This says a lot about the relationship between movies and film. The fact that the director is treating these long takes as if they were photos come to life is almost magical. He sits there writing out these directions for his father during this magical photo which he will leave for his father. Another example of how even though Jungwon will soon disappear, it will not be without a trace. There are many more examples of how the director aimed to use the long take to make us feel as though we were looking at a series of pictures of the life of our two main characters Darim and Jungwoo.
Michelle Kim
ReplyDeleteChristmas In August is a love story of a dying protagonist, which has been dealt with so many times in Korean movies and dramas. However, unlike those movies and dramas, this film had less drama and words and more pictures and sounds. It was a slow, quiet movie. The movie was slow in that the cuts did not change rapidly and that there were a lot of long takes. And it was quiet not only in that the characters did not have many lines but in that it felt as if there was not much soundtrack played. There were scenes with music, but I felt like it was carefully played so that the music would not disturb or even bring out emotion of the scene. It was so serene throughout the film that when a song with lyrics was played, I could not get the song out of my head. After meeting his first love at his photo studio, Jeongwon takes a bus and nostalgically looks out the window. At this very scene, a song sang by Sanulrim—Over The Window An Old Thought May Come (창문너머 어렴풋이 옛 생각이 나겠지요) http://youtu.be/tcxzKa5mMjg —is played. The lyrics of the song were heard more clearly than usually it would and helped me understand the scene better.
The narration at the beginning of the movie suggests that Jeongwon thought about death for the first time at an empty schoolyard when he was an elementary student. Later, the empty schoolyard repeatedly appears at the film when Jeongwon struggles with the thought of dying. For example, after seeing a scene of Jeongwon returning from the hospital, we see him bursting into tears in the middle of cutting his toenails and then the empty schoolyard. Following a scene of Jeongwon’s funeral, again, a scene of the empty schoolyard is shown. Since death is one of the main themes of this movie, there were many scenes, implying Jeongwon’s death. The scene that I remember most is a scene of Jeongwon and his father at the fish market. After ordering a fish, father watches the fish die, bleed, and be cut and then turns his head to see Jeongwon, who is not looking at the dead fish but at the live fish in the tank. It seemed that father was aware of the fatalness of Jeongwon’s illness but Jeongwon did not want to think about his death.
Alice Kwon
ReplyDeleteThe most poignant aspect of Christmas in August is its human portrayal. In other words, the film is immensely believable and captures experiences and feelings that everyone can relate to. As such, Christmas in August produces sentiments of nostalgia, comfort, and ultimately translates an array of human emotions both within the film and the viewer.
Beyond the symbolism apparent in the film, the human conveyance that is laced throughout the film has a striking impact. In one instance, Jung-won eats watermelon with his sister on the patio, dabbling in small talk and spitting out watermelon seeds in the process. Another scene captures Jung-won and his old schoolmates taking one last portrait together; all aware of Jung-won’s impending passing. Arguably the most delicate and beautiful scene within the film is when Jung-won takes the portrait of the elderly grandmother who returns to the photo shop late at night, having changed her hanbok. She mentions that the portrait taken will be used for her memorial service; she says this with a sense of peace and a small smile, implying her readiness and content with what she will leave behind. This encounter foreshadows Jung-won’s later self-portrait and also creates a painful sting knowing that Jung-won is passing at such a young age.
Jung-won’s optimism is a constant throughout the film. Despite his illness, he carries out his daily tasks with a positive attitude and a pleasant demeanor. This kind-hearted manner attracts the attention of Da-rim. Da-rim and Jung-won naturally develop a bittersweet relationship that is not able to come to full fruition due to Jung-won’s untimely passing. When the two go to an amusement park together, a couple taking wedding photographs are seen in the background. Da-rim and Jung-won would never be able to experience this stage of a relationship with one another. Their affection is untouched by deeper modes of contention and disagreement and instead leaves off in a delicate state of things, a wistful and beautiful lingering type of ending.
Yoonil Cho
ReplyDeleteChristmas in August directed by Hur Jin-ho in 1998 is kind of slow movie. This movie don’t have any big incidents but it shows people’s ordinary lives that we can easily see around us. Therefore, this movie is much realistic than other romance movies nowadays. After Jungwon hospitalized, Jungwon and Darim cannot see each other anymore, but this movie shows the sadness with music and actors act not the words. Such as, Darim waiting outside of the Chowon Photo studio and writing letter to him and throw the brick to the display window of the photo studio. Also, this movie didn’t show what his disease was and what she wrote to him and what he responded to her. This induces people to think and imagine about this after movie. However, at the end of the movie the narration of Jungwon can help to think what he write to her. There are many long take scenes and it makes people to linger the image of the movie. At the end of the movie Darim came back to the photo studio later and found her picture and smiles shows that she knew that he also like her and be a precious memory.
Yoonju Bae
ReplyDeleteChristmas in August by Jin-ho Huh expresses restrained affection between Jungwon and Darim. Jungwon`s death sentence restricts him from expressing his love for Darim directly. However his great love towards Darim is shown through the scenes such as Jungwon reaching out his hand on the window, staring at Darim from far away. Their affection is not shown imposingly; but their silent expression was enough for the audience to acknowledge their affectionate love. The usage of many long take scenes display the calmness of the characters and the setting which is unique from other fast-paced films of today. The falling leaves while Darim was standing in front of the photo studio displays the loneliness she feels and the time it has passed, the leaves symbolyzing autumn. Extreme sadness scenes of Jungwon`s death were ommitted from the movie, but in the scene of Darim smiling while looking at her picture displayed at the empty photo studio shows Darim`s feeling of nostalgia to Jungwon.
The title of the movie itself has a great meaning, virtually explaining the feelings felt by the characters. December is said to be the month of couples because of Christmas. But to Jungwon, August is the last month of his life, and the month he is together with Darim. August is the month that made his heart flutter, so in that sense, August is like Christmas to Jungwon.
Bo Lee
ReplyDeleteWhile watching this movie, I thought it was very strategic how the director showed the scene of the elementary school several times in the film. The movie started with the main character’s somewhat daily routine. He eventually goes to the elementary school and reminiscences about his childhood years at the school. There is another scene where Jungwon and Darim are having a race in what looked like the playground of the school. Also, throughout the movie, the scene of the front of the school is shown, as if it were a picture, during transitions of scenes. I think that the purpose of showing the elementary school so frequently was to show time passing and also to show the innocent and pure love between Jungwon and Darim growing. I also think that the elementary school represented a constant in Jungwon’s life. The school was always a treasured memory of his youth that has never been tainted.
When Jungwon meets his friend for sushi and soju, Jungwon says that he is dying to his friend. Although the audience knew he was sick, this was the first time it was shown that his illness was terminal. In the scene where they are in the police station, Jungwon lashes out for the first time in the film. His character was shown to be an optimistic, easy going guy but this scene shows us that he has emotional pain. He says, “Why do I have to be quiet?” but during this scene it felt like he was saying, “Why do I have to die? Why me?” It seems as though he came to terms with his imminent death, but drinking alcohol made him revert back to the stage of anger in the “five stages of grief.” This shows that Jungwon is human and can’t pretend to live life normally. Overall, I really enjoyed the movie. I thought this was the quintessential Korean melodrama. The sweet and pure love that Jungwon and Darim shared was really beautiful to watch. In Korea’s current day, many people date based on what the other person has to offer, whether it is a high paid job, social class, etc. But this movie showed a love between two people who loved each other for who they were and not based on materialistic things.
Esther Oh
ReplyDelete“Christmas in August” shows a story of a sick man who has accepted his inevitable death. Because he knows he is going to die soon, he finds joy in the little things and prepares for his death. In the beginning of the movie, he talks about his late mother and says how death is a normal part of life and that everyone dies. There were many scenes foreshadowing his death where he looked back at old photos, made step-by-step directions for his father, and took a grandmother’s memorial photo. Also, when he is out drinking with his friend, he says, “Let’s drink until we die,” which could be taken literally for him.
The movie was slow-paced and had mostly medium-length to long-length shots, which allows viewers to look more closely at details. The slow-pace and stillness of the movie ties together with the photography in the movie. The background music and minimal usage of dialogue let viewers pay attention to more of the visual aspects of the film. I paid more attention to the visual field of the film, much like when looking at photographs.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteSangbin Park
ReplyDeleteResponse: Christmas in August
The movie Christmas in August was an extraordinary film. It has proved my stereotypical expectations of a melodramatic movie to be wrong. I expected the movie to be overly emotional and full of romantic scenes of lovers. However, the movie was rather a realistic representation of a love story. Throughout the movie, I was surprised by how little words were spoken by the characters. The story progressed smoothly without many events and words. Long shots of scenery blended with emotional music dominated the movie. Unlike many other romance movies, this movie did not show many romantic scenes of the two lovers, Jung-won and Da-rim, and this makes their love more sad as the audience’s think about what their love could have been. The movie successfully draws a couple’s love that shakes the hearts of the audience.
Throughout the movie, I was intrigued by a few recurring objects and events: ice cream, weather, and windows. Firstly, ice cream appeared in many scenes where Jung-won and Da-rim met with each other. Most importantly, it appeared in their first meeting and their first date. Ice cream seems to be a symbolic representation of their love that is sweet, but temporary. Secondly, I noticed that the weather played a significant role in the movie as well. The movie starts with hot weather of the summer. As the health of Jung-won worsens, the rainy weather dominates the scenes as if it is crying for Jung-won who suppresses his feelings. When Jung-won passed away, the movie features the streets nearby his photo studio covered with snow. Lastly, the role windows played in the movie was fascinating. The windows were the spatial representation of the distance between Jung-won and Da-rim. Through the large glass windows of the photo studio, Da-rim waited and looked for Jung-won at multiple occasions. Jung-won, too, frequently encountered Da-rim through the bus windows as the bus drove by her. Moreover, the scene where Jung-won looks at Da-rim from the windows of a coffee shop signifies their relationship, a relationship that is transparent, but is restricted by the spatial barriers. Towards the end of the movie, the movie left me questioning about the real meaning of the Christmas in the title and the movie. Perhaps, August was Christmas for Jung-won as he spent his time with his loved one, Da-rim, as Christmas is often regarded as the time for lovers. I can only speculate the meaning of the many elements in the movie as it seemed to me that the director left many of the narration up to the audience.
Donghee Kim
ReplyDeleteUnlike numerous other movies, there is not much of a plot to this film, "Christmas in August". The director, Hur Jin-ho, deals mostly with the main character in-depth and how he deals with people around him in his last days of life. From the beginning to end this movie flows with very much of the subtleness. Although Jung-won has an incurable disease waiting for his upcoming terminal end in his life, he is portrayed as a quiet, peaceful, and normal photographer who spends most of his time in his studio. The movie sets its tone by Jung-won's illusive narrative and the outside shots of street. Instead of using long-shot, the director focuses on silence, stillness, and close-ups in faces to give prominence to emotions that each characters are going through.
Moreover, the use of pictures plays a significant role in this film. Many people come to his studio either to take big, happy family picture or to print pictures for one's happiness and enjoy. These factors contrast with Jung-won's reality around him since his family is depicted as to not have much of communication and dialogue with each other probably due to them knowing about his terminal illness. Also when elderly woman visits his studio again to have her portrait taken for her funeral, we could observe Jung-won's sincereness to make her the most beautiful person in his picture and I'm sure that he has sensed concurrence between him and her. Indeed, eternity is represented as pictures in that even Jung-won leaves "how-to lists" through pictures that can be remained after he departs.
Last but not least, I thought that the title of this film might have a connection with his last lover character, Darim, as a Christmas gift in August, the time when they have met. It also gives a sense of limited time that Jung-won has by putting Christmas existing in August in the title.
Yunhwa Choi
ReplyDeleteThe movie, Christmas in August, is about a beautiful, but sad romance between a photographer Jung-won and a parking agent Da-rim. His workplace, a photography shop, gives one of the most important motifs that convey their love to the audience. Most of all, they first meet at the shop as Da-rim often comes to print the photos that she took illegally parked cars. Through the window of the shop, Da-rim and Jung-won used to have a conversation from the opposite sides. When Jung-won looks at her, her image is clearly vivid, and we can realize that her clear image seen through the window is contrasted to blurry image of Jung-won’s first love when he saw her washing the window. This may be symbolizing that Da-rim became Jung-won’s love forgetting his first love. The movie as a whole is slow and still as if we are seeing photos. Another important theme in this movie is Jung-won’s death. He knows he is going to die due to an incurable illness. He slowly accepts his fate that he is going to die soon by taking a picture of himself alone for the funeral. When he takes his portrait, we can predict that the portrait would be used in the funeral by an old woman who came to re-take her portrait. The title of the movie may also symbolize a young man’s earth death and his unforgettable love at his last moment. August implies youth and the age of Jung-won when we compare the one year to human age. Christmas, which implies the day when we get precious gifts, may symbolize Da-rim, who is a gift to Jung-won. Also, Jung-won dies in winter, and Christmas also can be the moment of his death. Accordingly, the title, Christmas in August, implies a young man’s love at his last moment before he dies. As we can see from the last scene where Da-rim’s portrait is hung in Jung-won’s shop window, Da-rim remained as an important part in Jung-won’s heart forever.
In “Christmas In August by Jin-ho Huh, first thing that I want to mention is pace of this movie. This film was composed to various long shot of scenes and surrounding sounds instead of the conversation between characters. It makes viewers to think the movie as a slow-paced movie. This slow-paced movie was a bit bored and seemed to not many story in it, but with slow-paced, it highlights pure love and sadness of Jungwon’s time-limited life.
ReplyDeleteWhen I watched it, I thought some of scenes such as eating watermelon or riding a bike was unnecessarily too long, not having any foreshadows. But now I think it is one of strategies of showing how he enjoy and be satisfied with trivial things in his life. Those scenes emphasize sadness of his destiny.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteChristmas in August, directed by Hur Jin-ho, is not completely a tear-jerking, melodramatic movie. Rather, the movie seems different. The story focuses on a humble, quiet, and terminally ill photographer, Jung-won, that keeps to himself and dies at the end. However, we don’t know what illness Jung-won had. Also, since he kept to himself quite often, he doesn’t talk to others about his inevitable death. We do, however, see him express his death to his friend, whom didn’t take the comment seriously because they both had a few drinks already. In some ways, the movie can be seen as a typical, Korean melodrama with the death of the kind, main protagonist and the background music.
ReplyDeleteMusic is important to develop mood for movies. For this type of movie, background music helps add to the scenes to create different emotions, particularly sad ones. From the opening scene, we had a melancholy piano and oboe piece playing as Jung-woo rides his scooter through the streets. After another visit to the hospital, the same melody plays again when Jung-woo lay down on the floor to take a nap. Then, there was another melody that started up when Jung-woo saw Da-rim, a traffic officer, on duty through the window of a café. These were several of the melancholy pieces that contributed to the movie as a whole.
In “Christmas in August”, I noticed a very distinct style uncommon to many of the Hollywood blockbusters I’ve seen. Hollywood films usually have a quick transition between multiple shots that consists of a scene; in this film, there are longer takes filmed primarily in medium shot. It was very notable to me how almost all of the conversations in this movie used this particular style: the background isn’t very significant and the camera just focuses on the characters (usually only two involved) and the conversation they’re having. For example, Jung won and Darim have several conversations throughout the movie and the camera always cuts everything below the waist out. I noticed that there’s always food involved in these scenes as well. I don’t really see the significance of the food being present in these scenes but maybe Jung won likes feeding her because she mentioned how she has five siblings and they’re always fighting about how to divide food so that it’s fair for everyone.
ReplyDeleteAnother scene that particularly struck me was when the grandma comes back in the rain to have her picture retaken. Jung won asks her why she wants a redo and she tells him that it’s going to be for her memorial photo. The camera shoots back and forth so that the audience sees both characters in a simple background: Jung won behind the camera in a black background and the grandma in front of the camera in a typical portrait background. Her answer serves foreshadows Jung won’s impeding death and I feel that it makes him reflect on his life at the present. After Jung won takes the picture, we see a brief still of a happy grandmother. Photographs are a prominent motif in this film, used to capture significant moments we don’t want to forget. I feel that seeing this grandmother’s picture reminds Jung won that he should live happy until the very end.
Eunice Choi
ReplyDeleteChristmas in August is an excellent film that focuses on the lives of the two characters, Jung-won and Da-rim. The subtlety of the plot greatly magnifies the simple, everyday life of Jung-won. There are not many long dialogues between characters; the film, rather, amplifies the surrounding, like the sound of nail clipping by the moonlight, or various conversation of the people who came in for family picture, as if Jung-won is eavesdropping. The film portrays realism of genre scenes (slice of life) accurately by focusing on the daily, humble life of Jung-won at home and at the studio. Personally, the short scenes of everyday life could be some of the most memorable scenes of the movie, as Jung-won’s hidden despair is reflected through them. For example, Jung-won lets out his frustration on his father, who couldn’t turn on the VCR by himself. But he later writes down the instructions on a piece of paper. That particular scene is sad, but very intimate as Jung-won is frustrated and worried that he will be leaving his old father behind. The subtlety of the film is dealt beautifully and artistically, like pages of a photoessay, especially with long shots of characters doing certain actions with no particular dialogues.
Jung-won, a kind photographer, treasures every little moment in his life as he is aware that he does not have long to live. It is interesting to find many shots in the first-person perspective of Jung-won, especially when he is shooting pictures of various people. He takes pictures of his friends to remember his friendship since primary school. Jung-won takes Da-rim’s picture and treasures it in his box with the letter. As he is taking the grandmother’s self-portrait, he feels somewhat bittersweet and ironic, knowing that he must taken one for himself for the funeral altar. He narrates a few times about letting go of a person to be part of the “memory.” I think this is very important as an overall view of the film, because the film is telling the story of this humble, kind man who lived and died in the same neighborhood. And his memories are exhibited in the front window of his small studio.
Katie Allis
ReplyDeleteThe movie "Christmas in August" does not have the same kind of flash that many movies use to make things more exciting. There is little background music throughout the entire film. This gives a more realistic or possibly simplistic view of the life of the photographer. We can almost think along with him as he deals with his knowledge of what will happen to him. The lack of music gives it a more real life and real time feel.
Despite the somewhat bitter ending, the film does not necessarily leave a depressing feeling, in many ways it could be considered uplifting. Even though we know Jung Won's death is nearing, he continues his life with such a sunny disposition. In the end he has the opportunity to see Da Rim again, but makes the conscious decision not too. It could be because it would be too difficult for him, but it may also be to save her from having to deal with the knowledge that he is dying.
One of the most intense parts is when Jung Won takes his own memorial photo. We can clearly see the weight of what he is doing on his own face. The camera also starts by showing the chair alone, and then Jung Won walks into the shot. This gives the viewer a better understanding of the magnitude of a seemingly simple task. Jung Won has taken many peoples pictures, including the Grandma's which will also be used for a memorial. And in the end he too ends up in the same chair taking his own picture.
TINA KIM
ReplyDeleteChristmas in August
This melodrama film fascinated me because even though there was barely any conversation or verbal narration going on, we could still get a good grasp of what the protagonist was thinking and even what was occurring throughout the film. The film moves like a picture book. The majority of the film is filled with abrupt cuts. The scene where he was taking his medication and his visit to the hospital is an example where there were no conversation going, but we could understand the situation. We know that he is ill and that he was running short on time to live with the evidence of the pills and the hospital scene. Since the film does not reveal what his illness is, we also get the feeling that the main character is not only protecting his friends and family of worry, but the audience as well. This shows the protagonist’s character of not wanting pity and worry from anyone and also to live his life to the fullest in his last moments.
A particular scene that I found unique was when the protagonist, Jung-wong, was talking to Ji-won, an old classmate. The scene showed her sitting down next to him on a couch in his shop. The two have a small distance in between them and there was portraits shown behind them. What I found interesting was that the portraits behind them reflected the characters. Behind Ji-won was a portrait of a mother and child. This shows who she was since is currently a mother. The father was not shown in the portrait as well, which reflected what the Jung-won sister mentioned about Ji-won’s husband being addicted to gambling and drinking. The wife is pretty much on her own and taking care of her children. The portrait above the protagonist’s head was cut off because of how the camera was positioned. What was shown was just the black background on the portrait. Black is a color that is usually associated with despair, death, and sadness. This portrait behind Jung-won reflected his emotions, fear, and also foreshadowed his death.
Christmas in August is a film that utilizes the long shot, long takes, and music to create a love story that can be seen by many as realistic. The long shots and long takes were not only used to establish the background and surrounding but it also helped create the feeling of loneliness. An example of this is when Darim waited outside Junwon’s shop night after night but he never showed up. Us, viewers, knew that both protagonists were alone and lonely but the characters did not know why – creating a misunderstanding. The use of music really set the mood within each scene. If we listened to the background music, we were able to predict what’s going to happen. During the scenes where the protagonists were sad – the sound of rain can be heard or music drowning in the background is heard.
ReplyDeleteAnother technique the director used was using the perspective that can be seen through the camera. Through this perspective, we were able to see the true feelings that each person felt. When Darim was in front of the camera, she looked very innocent and almost shy – like a girl who is falling in love for the first time. When Junwon took what would have been his memorial photo, it is clear that he was very sad and how much he didn’t want to leave this world. Through the lens of a non-living thing, the characters were able to express their true feelings. All of this added to the tugging of the heart for the viewers because we see what the protagonists couldn’t show each other. Both held out for a little too long, and by the time they realized that there were feelings – it was too late.
Laura Markou
ReplyDeleteThe movie "Christmas in August" is filmed in longer shots and therefore appears to be slower paced than other movies. There are also several long shots distance wise, so that viewers are able to see the settings that the scenes take place at, most notably being the photo studio, the elementary school, and the hospital. These three locations are shown repetitively and hold significance in relation to the protagonist Jungwon's life. Firstly there is his work life at the photo studio, secondly his remembrance of his past school life, and then there is the hospital where he receives his medicine and later treatment.
Effects and symbolism were tools used to extenuate emotions in this film. An example would be the use of thunder and lighting that occurs as Jungwon is home after Darim does not show up for their promised meeting. The interpretation could be either his concern for her or the realization of his condition and perhaps his concern for others' reactions to it. The scene where Darim looks at herself in the mirror and cries after not receiving any word from Jungwon also may symbolize her frustration and thinking that there may be something wrong with herself.
In my opinion, the most important part and the greatest use of cinematography in this film was the scene where Jungwon takes a photograph of himself in his studio. It was similar to how he took an older lady's picture. She told him that it would be used for her memorial picture. During this scene there was silence. The shot was also long yet I felt that it was intense. The close up of Jungwon's face was through the camera lens. From the lens, his expression appeared to be unreadable as to whether he was accepting his condition or afraid. Once the photograph was taken, there was a fade away and change to an actual memorial photograph. This signifies that Jungwon has passed away. The photograph is also in black and white, which gave me a sense of sadness. In conclusion I believe that this film appeared to be slow paced and perhaps without a plot but yet at the same time it was very emotionally powerful.
MinJoon Choi
ReplyDelete“Christmas in August” was a different love-movie in the sense that there were not many emotions but there was not many emotional scenes or dramatic scenes built up by the two lovers. Majority of the shots in the movie is a freeze fame shot. By using this technique, I believe that the director was trying to convey the unforgettable-ness in life. JungWon dies in the end of the movie, but it is still clear that Darim and JungWon both have feelings towards each other after his death. In the ending scene, the road is filled with snow and everyone’s footprints are what remain on this snow filled street. This conveys that the love between Darim and JungWon is referred to as the footprints which is continuously made and therefore showing that the love is constant. This is where the title seems interesting. There is no way there is a Christmas in August, but when we watch the whole movie, it makes sense if we interpret Christmas as snow. But the director also probably used the diction Christmas because Darim and JungWon met in August, and each of them was like a Christmas present for each other.
Another aspect we should take note of is the portrait. Portraits and pictures appear frequently in the film, as JungWon is a photographer. After one’s death, the only thing that remains our photos, and I believe the director used this to emphasise the love between Darim and JungWon. JungWon when taking photographs, understood the significance of the photos, and therefore in the scenes where he is asked to take the portrait, he makes sure he takes the best. Towards the end, Darim was furious towards JungWon because he has not appeared to the store for a long time, but when she sees a picture of her in the studio, her anger deteriorates. This was the proof that they had mutual feelings. For the two of them, the photos represented their “eternal love”.
Grace Chang
ReplyDeleteThe film, Chirstmas In August, portrays Jung-Won's life and his surroundings in an unsaturated, sepia toned frame. Although most of the color does not have significance, red and yellow are the strongest contrasting color in this movie. I felt like I was watching a roll of moving “photos” instead of a regular film since the scenes depicted by Huh Jin-Ho seemed as if they were pictures connected by one another. Da-Rim and Jung-Won’s romance blossoms in a small sofa located in Jung-Won’s photo studio, and that specific area looks like a setting for taking picture. When Da-Rim enters or leaves his side, it seems as if she is entering and leaving Jung-Won’s life itself. Also, the seasonal change can be seen from the humid summer days to winter time with the changes in color and the natural phenomenon such as sun, autumn leaves, and snow.
Jung-Won, our main protagonist, displays two distinctive behavior in this movie; (1) he acts more like a child who is about to (2) leave this world. When we first see him in the movie, he is playing around in a school yard by doing pull-up bar exercise and sitting on a tire. He jokes around with the kids when they were choosing the prettiest girl among a group of students as if he is same age as them. He also hands over an ice cream to Da-Rim as a sign of apology. He spits out bunch of watermelon seeds with his sister and talks about how he placed Ji-Won, his first love’s photo in his exercise book in elementary school. Lastly, he quietly sleeps next to his father on a rainy day. We might call someone with these behaviors “kidults” nowadays, but Jung-Won’s action indicates how he wants to trace back to his past and remember what he had done and live young. He also prepares to leave his small world by having reunion, writing down the instructions for his father about how to play video and how to use machines in the studio, and taking self-portrait.
He is quite passive around the presence of Da-Rim from the very beginning. However, the reason why they have a consistent relationship is because Da-Rim is the one who always reaches out to Jung-Won and starts to question him in various ways. What I noticed while listening to them was the tone and the quality of the conversation. When they have question and answer time, Jung-Won first uses jon-det-mal to Da-Rim; this could be perceived as if he is being respective to her or as if he is stopping her from being close to him since he already knows that she will be left alone after his death. He completely stops using jon-det-mal when he sees Da-Rim outside of his studio. When they break the ice and Jung-Won starts using ban-mal, he accepts Da-Rim into his life.
Sent an e-mail
ReplyDeletestudent number - 2013841579
Esther H. Cho
ReplyDeleteChristmas in August
The movie Christmas in August is a romance drama directed by Hur Jin-ho in 1998. It is clear that the director intended to use photography as an important key element in the movie. As the many scenes throughout the movie were shot in long takes, it makes an audience feel like they are looking at photos instead of watching a movie. Because of this effect, I was able to pay attention to every detail in the long takes because it was so still as if I was looking at a photograph. For example, in the film where Da-rim is outside Jungwon’s shop (when he is hospitalized), the scene is very still and slow, as if the audience is looking at a photograph instead of a movie scene. This slow and long take technique really grasps the audience’s attention and really allows an individual to better understand the character’s emotions.
As the main character Jungwon is a photographer, he takes pictures for a living. He takes family portraits, self-portraits, as well as funeral portraits. In one of the middle scenes, he takes a funeral portrait of an old, elderly woman. She comes back to retake her photo so that her last funeral portrait (a last photograph people will see of her at her funeral) looks nice. We can see that the elderly woman has acknowledged the fact that she will pass away soon. Towards the end of the movie, a similar situation is portrayed in the movie: Similar to the old woman who came in to take her funeral portrait, Jungwon takes a funeral portrait because he acknowledges his unfortunate fate of being fatally ill.
I personally did not like the ending; as Jungwon and Da-rim simply exchanges letters and they do not meet each other after their first date, the ending seemed too depressing for me. However, the ending is significant because there was a reason why he did not tell or see Da-rim. He did not want her to know he was fatally ill and he wanted to preserve his last few memories and moments of his life with Da-rim. Just like a photograph that is still and paused, he wanted to keep his relationship with Da-rim peaceful even after he faces his death. When Da-rim visits Jungwon’s photo shop after his death, she sees a portrait of herself as a display in his shop. This signifies that although he is no longer living, she will never be forgotten in his life (unlike his childhood love who asked him to take down her portrait).
Fang-chieh Lien
ReplyDelete“Christmas in August,” directed by Hur Jin-ho, is a movie about how the main character, Jung-won, lived the last couples of months before his death and about the way Jung-won dealt with his early death. I really like that the film began at a point that Jung won and his family already knew he was sick, so the audiences were actually getting to know his illness gradually during the film when he tried and wanted to create great memories with his families and his friends. For example, he played with his younger sister and asked his friend to buy him a drink. I think that the close relationships between characters are the key elements that make this film very touching and sad. Although there are only few scenes between Jung-won and his father, the emotions in those scenes are all so strong that we can easily understand the tight relationship between this family. I actually started to cry from the scene which Jung-won tried to teach his father how to use the video tape player. It is clear that both of them understood why Jung-won wanted to teach his father at that moment. The next scene after Jung-won left the room indicates that his father in fact knows how to do that but just pretends he doesn’t. I personally think it is because his father wants Jung-won to continue worrying about him and to continue staying with him. Also, the scene which Jung-won’s father stands outside his room being with him when he was in pain shows how much his father loves him without even saying a word.
Besides the relationship between his family, window seems to play an important role in the relationship between Jung-won and Darim. In this film, there are many shots that focus on windows; for instance, the scene Darim talks to Jung-won through the window, Darim breaks the window, and Jung-won looks at Darim through the window in a coffee shop. It seems to me that window represents the distance between them. Their relationship has never developed into intimacy in the film. During the film, we see both of them are getting interested in each other and are trying to get closer to each other. The scene that Darim talks to him through the window asking if she can enter suggests that there is still physical and non-physical distance between them. When the film entered the last half, Darim broke the window, which is in the meantime the obstacle and distance between them. For me, it seems that Darim now is ready to get closer and join Jung-won’s life; however, he is already not there. Therefore, the scene Jung-won looks at Darim through the window in the coffee shop represents the huge gap between them. Based on these scenes, I believe that window is also an important motif in this film.
Response to Christmas in August
ReplyDeleteCompare to what we’ve seen last Wednesday, Christmas in August was much more lack in vividness. I think this is because the movie is refusing to walk through typical climatic bursts out dramaturgy. On the other hand, it rather exposes the feeling in calm sense, not exaggerating by taking a portrait of main character. This shows how the revelation of sadness is simplified. After the movie, I’ve asked few people about the reaction. It seems they are confused including me, because the movie is surely dealing with death and sadness, which are very sophisticated, and various meanings exist in context. However, it is like tasting water. I don’t taste anything but I can tell my thirst is gone.
Window also has a thematic meaning. The window in photo shop, started to show up from the middle of the movie. When Jung-Won finds out about his first love’s unhappy life, the narration overlaps stating “ love becomes past”. In that bus scene, he was looking outside the window and some Korean song plays. Actually this song is from Sanulrim the Korean rock band. One line says, over the window, I think of old times. (창문 너머 어렴풋이 옛생각이 나겠지요) Jung-won and Darim meet through window. Several conversations are done placing window in the middle. Window means closed that can’t touch objects through it, but one can see through it. This leads to the scene where Darim is busy ticketing vehicles, while Jung-Won watches her through café window. Also it explains why Darim throws rock at the photo shop. In broad perspective, window has a resemblance to frame in camera. Through that window, Jung-won finishes his life with love, and Darim is remembered in smiles.
I may be overreacting but, it seems Jung-won is almost always offering a cup of coffee to Darim. In my translation, this is his subconscious refusing sleep(death). It appears again in other scenes. He woke up in the middle of the night, and moved over to his father’s room. Then he fell a sleep right next to him.
Ng Hui Shin
ReplyDeleteThe movie is sad because of the way Jung-won prepares for his death in an off-handed manner. We know that death should make one feel anguished, but to see Jung-won handle it in a seemingly light-hearted manner makes us sympathesize with him more. We feel that he is suffering yet at the same time, doesn’t allow these emotions to show and instead, tries to joke about his situation. This makes his impending death even more poignant because it is not portrayed in a direct manner throughout the movie, but rather, is hinted at. It is particularly sad in one scene where an old lady prepares to take her own portrait after taking a photo with her family. Here, she is actually contrasted with Jung-won; both are dying, yet they do not show nor talk about their impending deaths. Instead, both of them brush their deaths away as if it is not a big deal, and instead appear to greet death with a smile. This evokes sympathy and makes the idea of death even more poignant and sad.
Also, as a photographer who can only take photos but not be part of the experience within the photos, Jung-won can only look in at the lives of people around him; but he is not really a part of them. Perhaps this is why, in the first half of the movie, almost all the shots have a picturesque quality; the composition and dimensions of the shots were such that they appear as beautifully arranged pictures. This is particularly so when Jung-won’s shop is shot from far, it looks like a pretty picture set against a pretty background. However, there is a change when Da-rim enters his life. In one scene when Da-rim sits on the couch in his shop, he stepped into her frame, thus stepping into her life. From then on, the picturesque shots appear to have more life and more moving elements; Jung-won is also part of the pictures now. However, as the pictures represent moments caught in time, Jung-won himself is also captured in his dying moments. This can also be seen during scenes of him sitting on the couch, when the outside lights sweep past him, it is as if he is being shot on camera; the yellowish lights also appear to signify the decay of time, telling us that Jung-won is dying. I especially like the scene when Jung-won was taking the last photograph of himself, where the shot zoomed into his name-plate on his camera - it appeared to represent the plate on his to-be-tombstone, and then zooms into that particular photo that was used during his funeral. The movie does not show him dying directly, but instead, does it through a photo instead, which again highlights the use of photos to represent life.
Christmas in August is a 1998 Korean melodrama film directed by Jin-ho Hur. Hur does well in portraying a feeling of isolation for Jung-won’s situation. A few scenes show Jung-won looking on at others through a window. One includes Da-rim speaking to Jung-won through his studio’s window. Even though it is a cute interaction between the two, the sequence is taken with shots viewing the characters walled off with muffled voices. Another more powerful scene occurs near the end after Da-rim has not seen Jung-won for a while and Jung-won observes Da-rim through the window of a coffee shop. The reflection from the window is used creatively to convey eye-line match as Jung-won watches Da-rim’s car appear. He places his blurred out hand in the foreground on the window of the next frame indicating how his condition has caged him away. The isolation that is created is not dissimilar to the identity of a photographer either which fits with Jung-won’s job.
ReplyDeleteHowever, the film’s deliberately drawn out scenes can be a bit excruciating. Although the long takes give the movie its friendly tone and causal pacing that mirrors Jung-won’s personality, there is a surplus that feels cheap. To elaborate, overdoing the stretching moments end up appearing like an excuse to extend the length of the film. Examples include the bus ride scene that takes a great length of time compared to the few lines of monologue that is given and other scenery shots establishing the next sequence that linger on. By overusing such techniques, the film appears lazy and leaves the viewer questioning the purpose.
Kelsey Savoy
ReplyDeleteHur Jin-Ho’s debut film Christmas In August tells the bittersweet almost love story of a playful photographer, Jung-Won, whose life ends too soon due to some illness. The film opens with Jung-won happily riding his scooter through town. Although Jung-won is actively driving is scooter through town, the sequence, along with most of the film, uses a long take plus such static composition that the shot looks more like a photograph than an actual moving picture. In this particular scene, Jungwon’s stagnant position in the middle of the frame along with the steadiness of the camera allows the shot to give the illusion of immobility. Being a professional photographer, it is almost as if Jung-won’s own life has become a living photograph.
Using the same illusion of a still shot, many transitory scenes in the film are of a local school through various seasons. The school represents the past and Jung-won’s growing nostalgia due to his impending passing. Throughout the film, Jungwon constantly asks his friends and family if they remember various past events. Jung-won seems to be literally stuck in a stasis of nostalgia until Da-rim is introduced. The only few fast moving shots in the film are in relation to Da-rim. When he visits the amusement park with Da-rim and rides a rollercoaster, the audience finally views the super-fast paced shot through Jung-Won’s perspective instead of viewing him passively like a photo. Although Jung-won’s premature passing does not allow their love to blossom, the shots of Da-rim and Jung-won sitting together in his office give the audience a tiny idea of what could have been by showcasing the pair in the center of the frame while surrounded by pictures of various life events they could have enjoyed together (e.g. family photo, child’s first birthday). Hur Jin-Ho’s static camera style along with the theme of nostalgia almost intermingles the present and the past creating a very poignant film about the passage of life and the power of memory.
Christmas in August was the movie that emphasizes the “memories”. His characteristics and purpose of life was shown through his job, as a photographer. The important part of his life was “memory”. Memory of his first love, Jiwon, of his several close friends, of his father and of his last love, Darim, is the main subject that is highlighted through out the film. He captures all the best moments of his life and keeps those moments in the frames of pictures. He doesn’t fall in love with other girls (after love for Jiwon), and that shows that he is captured and stuck in “memories”. At the end, he thanks to Darim who gave him the memories that last not only at those certain times in the frames but, the memories that will last forever. This last narration of thanking Darim describes a lot of things about him and his thoughts. Memories are in past tense. They are captured in past, even though you are full of memories, you have to progress from past to present and from present to future. From Darim, he realized that he was living and captured by the memories and didn’t progress to the future. The act of not telling Darim that he also likes her was one of the examples that he couldn’t progress to the future. All the reason behind his actions, were mainly because of his illness, and that illness made him hesitant about his love towards Darim. Another aspect that really caught my eye was the scene when the old lady came to take her funeral picture. She wanted to be remembered as pretty and happy person, and she comes back for another take. This act shows that we, as humans, want to be remembered as a good man or woman. From the beginning, Jungwon smiles at everyone, helps people and he was mostly kind and nice to everyone. Maybe, it could be his natural personality, but it is sure that he ,like the old lady, wanted to be remembered as a good, nice man.
ReplyDeleteJa Hyun Kim
ReplyDeleteThis is movie, "Christmas in August", is divided with two sections: one half with conversations and the other half with silence. The first half illustrates the foreseen hardship of Jungwon and how he carefully develops relationship with Darim. The conflict between the one soon to be dead and the one with future begins as Jungwon is hospitalized. This is the moment where silence comes into place. Rather than explaining their emotions with conversation, the director encourages the audience to empathize with characters upon silence. Darim’s frustration and anger was expressed as she wanders around Jungwon’s studio, putting her letter through the door, and finally throwing a rock at the window. On the other hand, Jungwon's longing desire was captured from the other side of the window, as if he was locked into a space where he is unable to step out. During silent moments, shots were comparatively longer than the first half. I find that the director aimed to give a better expression of the actor and actresses because facial expression and gesture are the only modes to communicate with the audience. Throughout the movie Jungwon's surging emotions were often hidden in front of his family and friends. This may have been the foreshadow of his passive love that eventually ends up in the box, hidden.
Won Jae Chang
ReplyDeleteIn the film “Christmas in August”, Jungwon already knows that he has no future. He slowly and quietly prepares himself for death. Most of time, he always smile and seems to be calm. It shows that Jungwon has acquired the way to keep himself to be positive person. However, the few scenes in the film show that he is actually internally hiding his sadness. One of the powerful scene is at the police station. When Jungwon is drunk with his friend, he is enraged from hearing “shut up” and he suddenly yells “why do I have to shut up?” and starts to cry in front of people. His aggressive actions clearly show that he does not want to die. The scene when Jungwon is crying in his dark room, he tries to silence himself with a pillow. The scene when Jungwon tries to teach his father how to play video, he gets angry and frustrated over the fact that his father is unable to learn use of remote control. All of these scenes clearly illustrate that Jungwon is actually worried and scared about death. Throughout the film, the scenes were constantly slow. There were few close up shots(mostly for Jungwon). Most of the scene was like photographic shots. The romanticized piano music was included at specific scene to create mood like sadness or romance.
Jihye Park
ReplyDeleteChristmas in August (1998) is a romance movie which portrays the humanistic and realistic love story. Unlike many movies or dramas, this movie doesn’t have a movie-like stories or scenes, but the movie is very similar to our ordinary lives. They get to know each other in each other’s ordinary life slowly, in a normal way. Even though the movie seems to be too tranquil, it is one of the effect that movie tries to portrait as Jungwon and Darim’s love as they start to acknowledge their love towards each other.
Jungwon and Darim first meet each other in each other’s everyday life. Movie flows slowly as it portrays Jungwon’s daily life and his life after meeting Darim. Even though the movie is a love story between Jungwon and Darim, it doesn’t have a emotional love scenes, but rather, the movie depicts little stories happening between the two main characters. They share stories, communicate, spend time together; just like everybody else does in ordinary life.
Jungwon, the main character is a photographer and owns a photo shop. In the movie, there are several scenes when the movie shows the photographs or Jungwon taking photos. I think ‘photographs’ implies how Jungwon tries keep memories of his surroundings and people through the photos that he takes. Taking picture implies how Jungwon tries to remember his people even after he dies, and the photos shown in the movie portrays Jungwon’s life before his death. I think the movie tries to show every little moments of his life by setting the main background of the movie as a photo shop and Jungwon’s as a photographer.
Hi Mr. Chung. This is Christine Kim. I'm the girl who said I'd write two posts this week so I don't have to post anything for the horror week. I'm be commenting on today and wednesday.
ReplyDelete"Christmas in August" was indeed a very slow and nonverbal movie, but I think there was a purpose for that. The long takes and silence, I believe, truly depicts reality. It's as if we are in the room with that character, just spying on them. In real life, nobody is constantly talking. In movies, the take would be much shorter, but this movie had very long takes. Also in movies, when people are having a phone conversation, you can hear the person on the other end of the line. But, in Chung Won's conversation with his friend, you only hear what Chung Won says. There are also many natural sounds emphasized in the movie such as nail cliping, water running, rain, etc. I counted the movie only played music four times. Many of the sounds were natural. I believe that's the directors purpose for his long takes and silence. To make the movie more relatable and a realistic.
This Korean cinema showed many korean elements that make the movie unique. It showed school pictures, kimchi, traffic cops, people filling gas, sitting on the floor during meals, and hanboks.
The one motif that stood out to me was windows. Many times, we see Darim looking into the studio window. We also see a vivid scene of Chung won washing the window and while he's rinsing the window, he sees a distorted Jiwon. Throughout the movie, there are many window shots. I believe the windows play the same role as photography, capturing the moment. the window pane being the frame of the picture. You look through the window and see a "picture". You may like the "picture" or "view in the window", but the moment doesn't stay forever.
Andrew Song
ReplyDeleteThe movie, Christmas in August, is about a dying man who runs a photography studio and falls in love with a meter maid woman. In this movie, there are not much of dramatic plot, magnificent visuality or much dialog, but I realized that the subtleness of this movie led the audience to focus on the characters’ emotion or their facial expressions. Two main characters, Jung Won and Da Rim, do not declare their relationship, but the audiences have a sense of how they feel about each other. Also, Jung Won never talks about serious illness or never shows how much he suffers from it. However, by showing how his relationships with his family and his friends change, we can assume his situation naturally.
Personally, I liked the way the movie put the audience in such moods by having awkward silences between dialogs of two characters, and the way it set the tones. The film is quiet and open for interpretation that aids the audience to see the characters in depth. I found this movie has an appeal from the fact that the way it says its story is not too obvious but it soaks into the audiences’ head with all the moods and emotions of the characters and situations.
Joanna Han
ReplyDeleteAlthough the plot of “Christmas in August” is about a terminally ill man, the way the film was shot created a very peaceful and serene atmosphere that was enjoyable to watch. As the main character progresses through the denial, anger, and finally acceptance of his sickness, the film overall instills a feeling of serenity and appreciation.
First of all, the director utilized very long takes and also kept the camera stationary in both angle and position as the actors and the scene continued to progress. These techniques made it seem like the audience was an inanimate object watching the world pass, which created a very realistic setting in that none of the shots were overdone or too fancy. As if watching his life in real time through unedited, and unscripted moments, the beauty of Jeong-won’s life is revealed. By keeping it simple, the director emphasizes and embraces the most real and beautiful but unfortunately often overlooked or forgotten moments in life.
Another characteristic of the film that added to the simple but wistful atmosphere of the film was the lack of dialogue and background music. In many scenes throughout the movie, only the natural sounds of the environment can be heard. This detail only furthers the realism the director portrays through the mundane and most ordinary moments of Jeong-won’s last months. Instead of depicting flowery moments of his life, the movie focuses on the simple joys he experiences on a daily basis, like eating watermelon with his sister or making dinner with his father. Ultimately these elements combined create the lasting message to think about and appreciate those small moments in life that we often take for granted.
Individuals reflect their significant stress and interests in pursuing and enjoying their memories. Memories illustrate not only the fragments of their lives in the past, but also a source of the unforgettable and uncountable values that provide a sense of love. Especially the desire for keeping memories is well reflected in the photo, which distinctively stresses its significance throughout the film. Photo shares commonness with life in that they have restrictions. As life has death, the end of everything, photo reflects memories that are not irrevocable and remain as they were. By using contrasting perspectives, the correlative relationship of life and love is strongly enhanced, which is especially visible in the memories of the childhood love of Jungwon and his desire for eternal love with Darim. The childhood love of Jungwon offered an undesirable memory in vain, which is filmed in a blurry scope whereas his sincere love for Darim vividly illustrates his desire that the memories he shared with her could remain eternally. Furthermore, portrayal of the two main protagonists, Jungwon and Darim with a contrasting perspective effectively visualizes the sad and inevitable realities they experience. Jungwon lives a time-limited life with a fatal illness while Darim just started her new (career) life as a traffic officer, which also provides an insight that the life of Jungwon signifies restrictions, death whereas that of Darim reflects a source of possibilities. In addition, funeral portrait of Jungwon signifies his acceptance of his early death and an inevitable subjugation before the nature.
ReplyDeleteAs two protagonists were viewed with contrasting perspectives, usage of long-take among various cinematic techniques notably enhances such aspects. It provides calmness, which not only enables the audience to linger and concentrate more effectively on the scenes as if they look at the photos, but also expresses the emotions, loneliness. Moreover, windows symbolize a picture frame and create a living portrait. As clearly discussed, Jungwon’s portrayal of his childhood love is blurry, meaning that she doesn’t a place in his life anymore and illustrating the reality that windows are unable to change the photo’s reality, which is also stressed in the stillness. On the contrary to the fast-paced movies of today, slow-paced feature is strongly inter-wined with the significance of photo as well. Christmas is present in the last month of December during a year and December reflects the month of love as well. However, August is the last month of the life of Jungwon, which ignited his desire of love and such contrary usage of title significantly illustrates the shift in the state of emotions of Jungwon.
Christmas in August is a Korean drama that depicts the life of a middle-aged photographer facing the inevitability of an early death due to disease. It focuses on how he deals with daily life knowing he will die soon. It seems as though the director, Jin-ho Hur wishes to create a film that celebrates the simple things in life that create happiness. One of the ways he does this is by creating a blossoming relationship between Jung-won and Da-rim. However the relationship is never allowed to fully develop because of Jung-won’s early death. It seems that instead of focusing on the sadness of Jung-won’s death the director hopes to create a feeling of happiness by focusing on the small things that made Jung-won happy. Hur does this by depicting Jung-won and Da-rim happiness when they are together. Throughout the movie a feeling of sadness is lingers with the audience, the only times the audience feel happiness is when Jung-won and Da-rim do small things together, such as when Jung-won takes Da-rim’s portrait. Hur conveys a message of enjoying life’s simple things because one can never know when death will come.
ReplyDeleteAnother way director Hur conveys his message is by using the reoccurring symbol of photography. In the movie Jung-won’s photographs symbolize his desperate attempt to preserve the memories of his life. In the beginning he is content with going to work everyday and being surrounded by his memories, which are captured through his photos. However as the movie progresses and Jung-won begins to accept that his death is nearing, he begins to free himself from only reminiscing and actually goes out with his friends and even Da-rim, in hopes of creating memories for not just himself but others. In the end, Jung-won’s self portrait symbolizes his final acceptance of death and is able to die without regrets.
Kevin Ling
In “Christmas in August”, Director Hur Jin-ho used several techniques to convey the mood of the movie as well as the emotional feelings of the characters to the audience. Sequence shots were used in the beginning of the film to reveal the life of Jung-won. Even though he was seriously ill, theses scenes showed his peaceful and calm attitudes toward life and death. He’s always wearing a smile on his face and enjoying and interacting with his environment even in the hospital (where he was making funny faces to a child).
ReplyDeleteThere are numerous long takes and still shots in the movie. For example, when Jung-won was at the funeral of his friends’ father, the camera stayed still, capturing the outside of the funeral house for more than 30 seconds. I think this is a way to focus audience’s attention on the image. The audience also gets to reflect on the details and the messages of the scenes. While the audience’s eyes were on the funeral house, they can feel that Jung-won’s thoughts were on it (and possibly on death) too. The long and still take helps the audience to feel what Jung-won had felt in the situation. Another long take that lasted for almost a minute occurred when Jung-won offered ice cream to Daerim under a tree. This scene was really beautiful and warm in color. The long take helps the audience to feel the warmth and pleasantness of this scene and foreshadows that something sweet is going to happen between them. The frequent use of still shots reminds audience of photographs, which corresponds with Jung-won’s job and how he and Daerim met as well as the motif of reminiscence.
The use of non-diegetic background music also helps with conveying moods and emotions. Gentle and sweet music accompanied scenes such as Jung-won and Daerim eating ice cream together, Daerim taking a nap in the studio, and them riding automobiles together. The blissful music revealed the happiness the characters felt when they were together. When Jung-won watched Daerim through the window during the last scenes, background music sounded again. This time, the melody tying up with the story helps to bring out the sadness of Jung-won and deepens the emotional feelings of the audience.
Shi Hui Chen Lin
Joung Eun, Kim
ReplyDeleteChristmas in August (1988) is filmed very realistic and humanistic. This is about Jung-won and Da-rim's love story starting from summer to midwinter. And, I guess they get to know each other in August, because of the title. Also, I guess Jung-won dies around Christmas in midwinter. This movie reminds me first love, and unforgettable love through life. Jung-won and Da-rim get to know each other, and love permeates slowly between them. Da-rim seems to start falling in love with Jung-won because of his chilled-out atmosphere, and maturity. Jung-won seems to love Da-rim's innocence, pureness, and thoughtfulness toward him. They get closer than before when they go to the amusement park. They hold hands when they ride rollercoaster, and fold their arms when Jung-won tells Da-rim a scary story.
This movie has many implications. Photograph is the most representative implication regarding love, memories, current states. Jung-won puts away Ji-won's photograph from the display when he meets her. This implies that he gets over her, and his love toward her changes to one part of his memories. However, Jung-won puts Da-rim's photograph on the display continuously even after his death. This means that he still loves her. Moreover, he narrates that he thanks to Da-rim for making him die with love, not memories.
Title of the movie Christmas in August refers to its story about a young protagonist of the movie awaiting his death in winter.
ReplyDeleteUnlike other recent movies, Christmas in August does not deal with provocative topic. Watching the movie makes me to feel tranquility and serenity yet the movie is sad and bitter. The main character of the movie is named Jung-Won (Seok Gyu Han) who runs a photo studio. He dwells in time-limited life but practices kindness to those around him. However, sometimes he feels sad and bitter but he keeps these feelings to himself.
Many romantic movies consist of striking episodes, repetition of coincidences, and romantic and colorful events, but this movie is an exception. Lovers in this movie develop feelings towards each other through ordinary day-to-day events and finally they realize it is the love that they experience. calm and crush each other produces a small buildup of feelings that you feel feelings of love for each other that differentiates it from other films seem Mallow is water. Also this movie reminds of precious memories of first love that is fresh and youthful. Scene of two potential lovers was directed so naturally and plainly. Parking enforcement officer Da-Rim went to photo studio that Jung-Won runs because she needed a photo. Jung-Won, around this time, was anxious after he went to his friend’s funeral and feared about his upcoming death. While he was emotionally weakened, Da-Rim’s entrance to his life was like a beam of light. Both of them were honest about their feelings—they approached to each other because they wanted to know each other. Their stories were made up of ordinary events.
In this movie, Jung-Won was portrayed as a person who accepts death with calmness. And, he was indeed a kind man to Da-Rim, his lover. While living his life to the fullest by practicing goodwill and kindness to others, Jung-Won was faced with sadness from the life of a terminally ill. Sometimes, his depressed and gloomy state is captured in the movie when he smokes cigarettes in the back by himself and takes photo of himself for his funeral, but these behaviors are never exposed to others. When people are around him, he never loses his smile. This movie tells us that life of terminally ill can be interpreted differently. When Jung-Won is discharged from the hospital after knowing how badly his illness has progressed, he stops meeting with Da -Rim. He wants to still see Da-Rim so desperately, but he just sees her from a distance. He begins to calmly let go of parts of his life, and this aspect shows how this movie is differentiated from others. In the last scene, Jung-Won leaves behind some phrases that give viewers a refreshing jolt: “Like countless pictures of my memory, I know that love will ultimately be mere memories. But you did not end up in memories. I want to say thank you for allowing me to leave while keeping our love. “ These phrases showed that when Jung-Won faced his death, he was not sad and his first love for Da-Rim was a blessing in his life.
Emerson Sosa
ReplyDeleteAs an amateur photographer, I enjoyed the shots taken in "Christmas in August." It made the relationship between Jungwon and Darim much more "picturesque." A lot of shots were constructed by placing both main characters in a medium close shot in which only their upper bodies are shown with little background around them. This makes the feelings between Jungwon and Darim more intimate and idealistic.
One shot that I remember in particular is when Jungwon and Darim are eating ice-cream together in Jungwon's photoshop. Both are placed in a medium close-up shot which looks as if someone told them to pose in that position. Their legs are not showing and the frames of the pictures around them cannot be clearly distinguished. This take looks as if it could be found on a picture frame in front of his shop. Both are smiling as well as both are eating ice-cream like children. A very innocent and candid pose, it makes the take exude a perfect moment in time that has been captured by film but could easily be found in photography.
This style of cinematography goes well with the theme that pictures fade with time. All the poses that Jongwon took were momentary moments of apparent happiness. Jungwon would tell all his clients to smile when he took the picture. Soon after, that smile would disappear and reality would return to the frame. In the same way, Jung-won eating ice-cream with Darim would be short lived. He would never eat ice-cream with Darim again and the joy that Jung-won would have would only be a moment in time due to his fatal illness.
The art of photography can capture reality; at the same time, it can also capture a facade of someone. Through the cinematography of "Christmas in August," the takes time and time again show that Jung-won's happiness with Darim is just a facade for how he really feels and will fade with time. Depressing but that is how humans cope with life. Beautiful film.
Dongsu Jo
ReplyDeleteThe movie "Christmas in August" is about a terminally ill man's love story. The main character Jungwon is a photographer and his photo has constrast meanings in this movie.
For young boxer and elementery students, the photo showed future-oriented meanings. Elementery students start to experience what love is. In the young boxer's photo, it looks like he's preparing for his first match and he kept smiling. Both photos of the elementary student's and the boxer was depicting the starting of new experiences in thier life.
But for Jungwon, he used the photo as a medium to prepare his death which is ending. While he was taking last photo with his friends, jungwon seem serious with his gathered hands because he knows that it will be last photo with his friends. But unlike Jungwon, his friend Chulgu was drunken and stagger that seemed kind of funny and also a sad part at the same time.
Jungwon takes photos of the printer with polarloid camera for his father. He made a visual guidline for his father so that he could use it on his own after Jungwon's death. This is another example of Jungwon preparing for his death. I liked how the photo was used to compare both past and future.
"Christmas in August" is a very symbolic movie. Unlike many other films that elaborately explains the story and theme in a realistic matter, this movie tries to convey the theme rather in a symbolic manner by repeating objects, scenes, and using various camera techniques. The director Jin-Ho Hur is focusing a lot in showing how the film grammar and tools can work to understand the full movie rather than by explicitly presenting performance and story plot. Window is an essential tool to explain the emotional distance between Jung-won and Daerim. In the first part we can see Daerim only through the window. We don't see her directly. She is either reflected from the window light or she is seen through the window. Also, she is always in the background of the camera. Jung-won is always in the front ground whether he is teaching his student or working with his camera. However, this distance between these two characters melts down as Daerim asks his horoscope and says that they will be a good match. At that moment, Daerim enters into the foreground and she enters in Jung-won's life slowly. Jung-won is a very solitary character. In the beginning of the movie he lays down on the ground, sits on the desk, and works in his camera studio alone. His method of moving around and communicating with people is when he rides his scooter. He coincidentally encounters his ex-girlfriend as well as Daerim many times when he rides his scooter. Scooter is an object that symbolize his social life. He always seem to be alone riding it just passing by people and saying hi. However, this changes when Daerim takes a ride on his scooter, and keeps entering in his life. There are many shots taken perceiving through the window. Whenever, a window is shown between Jungwon and someone it explains the emotional distance between the two characters just like when Jung-won is washing the window and his ex-girlfriend came to visit in his studio.
ReplyDeleteWater is another distinctive form that constantly explains the . Jung-won drinks the water when he eats the pill, he washes the window, he washes the vegetable and he washes the dishes. Also, the water comes in a form of rain and water in the fishtank. The water means that he is cleaning up and preparing for his last of his life.
One of the main action that shows the bond between the characters is by sharing and eating something together. He eats fish with his friend, he eats tangerine with Daerim and he eats watermelon with his sister. Also, he always eat with his family.
Symbolism was also conveyed through a technical form. The long take camera shots show his stagnated life that he is living in. He lives in a mundane life that he cannot help but waiting for his death. The camera is in very long takes in the beginning and it doesn't have any movements such as panning, tilting or tracking. However, the camera first makes its movement when he starts to begin his love with Daerim. It pans along them and tracks, which starts to show how Jung-won is now more feeling alive.
The Film “Christmas in August” consists of a simple plot about a photographer Jungwon and his life story after receiving a death sentence. He spends time mostly in his photo studio and at home cooking for his father and sister. He seems quiet, happy and somewhat boring but his cheerful and positive personality does not drag down the mood of the overall atmosphere in the movie. Jungwon conceives death as kind of a phase, which every one undergoes and faces it with no fear. He thinks of his mother who had passed away, looks back at old photographs, writes down directions for his father, and takes his own photograph. These scenes were shown for a considerably long time with long takes that allows for the audience to be part of Jungwon and feel what he is going through. Although the main theme of the movie seems to be portraying Jungwon’s life, it is also about Daerim’s first love with Jungwon. They share precious moments, and find some common ground of interest in pictures. Photograph in this movie represents just more than a piece of memory, but it conveys the message of storing one’s whole life that consist love. At the end of the movie, Jungwon concludes and says that he is happy to die with love, not memories. It means that the person who remains in Jungwon’s heart forever is Daerim. Unlike many other romantic movies out in the media with the same, repeating elements that make it hard to differentiate, this movie was set and developed on a day to day basis of a normal person, and features a story of an innocent young love.
ReplyDeleteHa Rin. Chung
In the movie, Christmas in August, the detailed formal elements such as mise-en-scene and cinematography created a rewarding experience to the past.
ReplyDeletePersonal: Film strips, black and white pictures, blue fans, and etc. Who uses film strips nowadays with the digital inventions? or take old black and white pictures for money when there are filters to create the authentic look with an iPhone app? or etc.? It was amazing to compare how much the world has changed. Therefore, I was in awe of the mise-en-scene because I'm so used to the modern world and inventions.
Cinematography, I've noticed that there were many long-takes; these long-takes made the movie seem even longer than the previous films. Although the over emphasis of these clips felt unnecessary, it manifested each character's moods. I personally enjoyed watching all of the "self-portrait taking" scenes. From the girl with the weird hairstyle, the girl, the grandma, and then... him. A girl -> miss -> (missing mrs.) -> grandma = a life cycle. Then, him -fading to his memorial picture.
So what? what did this film mean to me? I'm not quite sure. It started with "live life positively" until he got drunk and started to cry... And then, I started to feel sorry for the man because he never got to get married or even go out with the girl that likes him back. And then it ended. Happily? He left the world liking the girl that likes him back. But life moves on...?
--I need to think about this film more.
Sang Won Jee
ReplyDeleteChristmas in August.
After I watched the movie i started write down some words and scenes that were impactive. through the first scence which is the hospital scene, I realized the main character 'Jung won' is sick. After that he ride a Motorcycle to get back his studio. Those Three places and object were linked the characters and emotions.
Photo studio was most important place i this movie because there were love, death, preparing, memories, recoding, hate at the sametime. Usually photo studio is for recording the moments of specific time in a paper. In a photo, people leave the happy and sad memories to remember. When 'Da-rim' came to the photo studio, the memory of love begin. With smiling and tlaking Jung won and darim started feel love each other. during they making the memories some connected happenings occured. Old women took the photo in the photo studio in the morning and came back in evening. She took the photo when she is going to use for funeral. When she didn't laugh in the moring but she laugh in the evening. I realized that she was carfully think herself of the photo. This scene was overlayed with the scene that jung won taking a photo himself that he will use for his funeral. This behavior was for preparing the death. He also, write down how to use the machine that printing the photos. This scene was also for preparing the death. Many lovely secnes were showed in the studio such as drinking beer in the studio, and many tlaking scenes. However, I also could see da-rim's emotional change. Da-rim love jung won so she always visit the studio but at the moment of jung won is gone, her emotion changed in to hate. That's why she throw the rock in to the studio's glasses and tried to remove some parts of the happy memories. At the end of the movie, the display of photo changed old girfriend or lover to Da-rim. In this scene, i also could see the change of emotion of Jung won.
I think red motorcycle is the kind of massenger that hop in to many people and locations. Through the red bike jung-won could back to the memories and came back to present. he met the old girfriend while he was riding a motorcycle and it connected both jung won and her. Also, Jung won and Da-rim's love started by motorcycle riding. Red bike connected the place to place. Home to studio, studio to hospital, and every places connected with bike.
Last, the hospital is the location that he preparing he's death. the medicine also showed he have not much time to live.
There were some interesting scenes that captured my mind. While Jung won prepare the death, he tried to teach how to turn on the video to his father. In this scene, i could feel how much he loves his father. the movie was a memory of the father with his wife. Thus jung won wanted to keep his father's memory after he died. Also, when the rain harshly fall in the summer time, I could see he is in nervous of the death. the thunder stroke at the out side and it was noisy. He woke up and determined to sleep with his father. In this scene, he was a nervous and wanted to be relax in family.
I think this movie showing the people's instinct when they love, nervous, hate, and so on.
Kathryn Brown
ReplyDeleteChristmas in August is a very subtle film. It regularly utilizes noticeably long takes, often without much action in the shot or plot advancement to account for, but this method is essential for getting across the point of the film, which relates to simplicity. One example of this is in the scene where the main character, Jung-won, is eating watermelon with his sister. The camera lingers as their conversation comes to a lull and they spit they humorously spit out the seeds. These extended moments help to show the awkwardness and monotony of his daily life while also highlighting the strong bonds these people share. Still, however, that seems to be enough for him and he keeps a smile, even in the face of death. Jung-won is very interesting and has a lot of depth. He laughs and jokes to escape his discomfort and his pain, never truly expressing his anxieties to anyone. Instead of going out and fulfilling some sort of last-minute “bucket list”, which is often expected of film characters in these situations, he chooses to continue with his quiet, average existence, which says a great deal about his personality and his values. Alternatively, he quietly deals with the reality of his looming demise, making sure everything is taken care of.
He didn't seem to be looking for love, but more stumbled across it with Darim. Their romance was short-lived, but playful and sincere, which is reflected in the use of different camera techniques. The camera is very expressive in the sense that it seems to convey what Jung-won is feeling throughout the film. Medium shots are used in interactions among characters, only adding to the understanding of the intimate feelings between them. This is true, not just with Darim, but also with his family and his friend when they go out drinking, showing the importance of these otherwise insignificant encounters to Jung-won. Shots become somewhat more dynamic and varied, however, when Darim and Jung-won are together, utilizing more panning techniques instead of static ones, showing the impact she has had on his simple life. The camera slowly zooms in on Darim's face as the two walk together outside, eventually cropping Jung-won out of the shot, as if to point out the moment of realization of her feelings for him. The themes of love transcending all things and fate are present in the film, which are commonly used in Korean melodramas. I think this could be related to the existence of Buddhist ideals being deeply rooted in Korean culture, especially in the sense that people and possibly their feelings exist forever, even beyond this life. The film makes jumps in time, but it becomes easy for the viewer to fill in the blanks, such as when he takes his final self portrait and jumps to the photo for the memorial. The viewer is just left to assume his death, which the director chooses to omit. In the typical style of Korean film, there is no shocking conclusion, or any definite conclusion at that. The characters don't get to say goodbye an life just moves on. In a way, one might even find this more true-to-life approach to film to be much more tragic, rather than being sad on a superficial level. To me, this leaves a more lasting emotional impact than something that is well-defined and final, creating commentary on the fleeting nature of love and life, as well as the importance of subtle emotions, and gestures, simple joys, and human connection.
(Ju Hyun Lee)
ReplyDeleteIn the movie, "Christmas in August," by director Jin-ho Hur, the main theme of the movie was life and love and that one cannot overcome fate. The movie had a lot of elements that described and illustrated love between different characters; between Darim and Jung Won, between father and son, between sister and brother, and between Jung Won's first love and him even though that love was never meant to be.
The movie started out foreshadowing the death of the main character, Jung Won. Many elements like the medicine from hospital, death of relative, telling his friend that he is dying in a joking way, close up scenes of his sister whenever Jung Won mentions anything about hospital, sickness, etc clearly showed how death is going to take place in his life. When he was slowly preparing for his death, a young woman, Darim, comes into a picture of Jung Won's life. All the love takes place in the Photo Studio, which symbolizes memory, that Jung Won own, and a lot of different stuff happens in the same place. Taking a picture of an old woman who is preparing to die--which demonstrated that all people die and Jung Won will not be able to overcome what is already clear to happen. Photo Studio also was a place where Darim and Jun Won got very close and stacked a little memories one by one.
This movie is very romantic but at the same time, it is sad and bitter at the end because Jung Won dies at the end without letting Darim know. At the end he mentions that it was a great privilege to have someone like Darim to fall in love with because it was very pure love that he will never be able to forget. However, I was confused and mad a little because it felt like he did not deal with the truth and his heart even when he was dying.
Ji Hee Lee
ReplyDeleteAlthough death could be the human being’s greatest fear, this movie ‘Christmas in August’ portrayed how a man prepares himself toward death. The director captures the mundane life of dying Jungwon while he looks back at his life and accepts death (which has no future). The way Jungwon realistically faces his death was very memorable.
He begins to organize his belongings that will be left behind and also relationships around him; with most respect, he prepares his death for himself and for people he loves. He sometimes forget fear while enjoying his remaining time with others but when he’s alone cutting his toenail, alone in dark, he cannot help himself but cry silently. He tries to overcome the fear and see what is best for his loved ones.
Lots of symbols were embedded in his ordinary days. (These were used to show multiple layers of meaning, foreshadowing, and also as pattern to link scenes after another.) Photography was a good example of understanding the characters; it may have captured what is in front of the camera but becomes a link to memories. The show window at his studio reflected his compassionate relationship with Darim. (more examples would be scooter, ice cream etc.)
The director shaped love in many different forms, not only he depicted love between Jungwon and Darim, he focused big portion of the film on the love between his friends and family. The unique scenes, symbolic props, and the smallest detail helped me to get better understand of Jungwons thoughts and how he got to the ‘acceptance’.
Hyungwoo Kim
ReplyDeleteIn the film's earlier scenes, Han's portrayal of Jung-won as a seemingly happy-go-lucky protagonist may mislead some viewers into questioning the veteran actor's thesping abilities, as it seems that his character in a perpetually good mood, laughing everything off. However, as more is revealed about him, it is apparent that this jovial demeanor is Jung-won's 'defense mechanism', disguising the difficult truth about his condition from others...and himself. Despite his inner turmoil and inability to share his innermost thoughts with others, there is a quiet dignity in how Han portrays Jung-won, from the mundane details of his daily routine to the film's weightier moments. Without the benefit of dialogue, Han is able to speak volumes with the subtlest of facial expressions, such as in what may be the film's most powerful moment, when he expresses his heartfelt affection for Da-rim while watching from afar.
Complementing Han's performance is Shim's award-winning portrayal of Da-rim. There is an earnest quality to her performance, and like her co-star, much of it relies on the subtlety of expression and non-verbal cues. From her initial appearance as a demanding customer, to her growing intimacy with Jung-won, and finally to her heartbreak as Jung-won's lack of courage gets the better of him, Shim is an integral component of the story's emotional core, as well as part of the film's ultimate tragedy.
In addition to developing a strong following at the South Korean box office, "Christmas in August" swept the Korean Film Awards in 1998, landing Best Film, Director, Actress, and Cinematography, all well deserved. This is a singular romance in which no one actually says, "I love you" or displays any other such overt signs of affection, yet the emotional undercurrent is no less stirring. The subtle approach taken by director Hur Jin-ho, as well as the powerful yet restrained performances of leads Han Suk-kyu and Shim Eun-ha, make "Christmas in August" an absolutely unforgettable motion picture.