First love and the past and the present come together in heartbreaking romance ARCHITECTURE 101
KOREAN MOVIE NIGHT: ARCHITECTURE 101 (GEONCHUKHAKGAERON) (Lee Yong-zoo, 2011)
Tribeca Cinemas
54 Varick St. at Laight St.
Tuesday, June 11, free, 7:00
212-759-9550
www.koreanculture.org
www.tribecacinemas.com
The free Korean Movie Night series “Laughter and Love at the Box Office!” continues June 11 at Tribeca Cinemas with the bittersweet romantic tale Architecture 101. Former architect Lee Yong-zoo’s second feature film, following Possessed, examines the building of personal relationships as well as the construction of homes as a pair of grown-ups consider what might have been. When Seo-Yeon (Han Ga-in) enters the firm where Seung-Min (Uhm Tae-woong) works, the thirty-five-year-old architect appears initially not to know her, but it turns out that they explored the possibility of first love together fifteen years earlier at school. Lee cuts back and forth between the present, in which Seo-Yeon hires Seung-Min to rebuild a house for her, and the past, when Seung-Min (Lee Je-hoon) and Seo-Yeon (Bae Su-ji) are still figuring out what they want out of life and love, trying to understand the desire churning inside them. In the present, Seo-Yeon says she has been married for three years, and Seung-Min is secretly engaged to his assistant, Eun-Chae (Koh Joon-hee). Meanwhile, in the past, Seung-Min doesn’t know what to do about his feelings for Seo-Yeon, who seems to like one of his best friends, Jae-Wook (Yoo Yeon-seok). The past, present, and future meld into one over the musical theme of pop star Jeon Ram-whe’s sappy Korean ballad “Etude of Memory” as true love tantalizingly hangs just out of reach. Architecture 101 is a beautiful yet heartbreaking film with superb performances — Bae and Jo Jung-suk, who plays Nabddeuckyi, a confidant of the younger Seung-Min’s based on the director himself, both won Best New Actor awards for their portrayals — and a compelling narrative structure that builds to a powerfully emotional climax. “Laughter and Love at the Box Office!” concludes June 25 with Jo Sung-hee’s romantic fantasy hit A Werewolf Boy.