Beonjijeompeureul hada (Korean) [Bungee Jumping of Their Own]

A love story that transgresses time and death in order to explore various individual resistances and social restrictions that affect gay relationships, this Korean film was remade in Thai as 'Dew' years later and I have reviewed that here. Call it time lapse or better technology or better grasp of the subject, I feel both in terms of storyline and treatment, the Thai version was better, not that it great by any means. The sexuality bits are slightly changed. 

The year is 1983 and normally shy boy In-woo accidentally meets a girl Tae-hee and they both madly fall in love with each other. Despite their shy nature, they both know that they are soulmates and decide to be together forever. However, later we are told that Tae-hee died in a very tragic accident. 17 years later now, In-woo joins a school as a Maths teacher. He is happily married now with a daughter. Because of his kindness and sincerity, he soon gets a good reputation among his students. But every time he sees one of his student, a boy named Hyeon-bin, he feels different. Over the period of next few days, In-woo feels special connection him and is convinced that he is reincarnation of his ex-girlfriend. The news spreads in school that the new teacher is gay and has hots for Hyeon-bin. Initially though irritated, slowly memories start returning to him as well and he does manage to remember his old love. Given the society probably won't accept this new relationship, they leave the city heading to New Zealand to bungee jump (was the girls dream from 1983), which eventually leads to their tragic ending.

The film with a scandalous theme surprisingly worked very well in South Korea at the time of its release. I can understand why. I guess people didn't see this as a gay film, instead it was about love which is in some way nearly transcendental and not bound to any social norms, and consequently isn't bound to any gender rules, either. Having said that, the execution of the films fails at many places. For almost first half we witness the growing love story between the boy-girl and suddenly then there is a 17 year jump. Only much later, we are told what happened, but as audience you already begin to question why is Tae-hee so interested in one of the students. Since being gay was still very much a taboo, the student is bullied in school when the rumors spread, but eventually he also starts to have feelings for In-woo, and even leaves his girlfriend. The whole school period and the teacher falling for student seemed very convenient. There were hardly many instances for Tae-hee to be sure that the student is a reincarnation of his ex-gf. Its only until later when he remembers things get clear. It was just too easy. The film is also  wishy-washy about the whole sexuality aspect of it all, disservicing the queer community. On surface, it seems to be trying to relate, but also is inherently selfish in its ideology. The protagonist causes massive amounts of pain to his students, his wife and then runs away with the boy to commit suicide with no regard for the consequence on those around them.

The story is interesting for sure but the problem is in bots and parts of execution. Still worth giving it a try. (5.5/10)