Korean Movie – Ditto

Information and Image
Alternative Titles: Donggam
Country: South Korea, 2000
Director: Kim Jong-Kwon
Cast: Kim Ha-Neul, Yoo Ji-Tae, Ha Ji-Won, Park Young-Woo
Type: Romance, Drama, Fantasy, School
Rating: 2/5

Summary: So-Eun (Kim Ha-Neul) is a college student in the year 1979. She has a crush on Dong-Woo (Park Young-Woo), a senior student in the same college. However, she finds it difficult to talk to hem. Somehow, she acquires broken broadcasting radio. She is contacted by Ji-In (Yoo Ji-Tae) who turns out to be another student in the same university. Through conversation, they find out that they are living 21 years apart. Ji-In is a sophomore in the year 2000. At first none of the believe it, but, slowly, they convince each other. They start telling each other about their lives and what’s it like to live in 1979/2000 time period. It turns out that Ji-In’s parents also went to the same university as So-Eun and are in the same year. His father turns out to be Dong-Woo…but who is his mother? Is So-Eun his mother? That’s where the twist happens and why this movie is a melodramatic movie. So, I can’t go into furthur detail without ruining it.

Review: This movie was pretty interesting. With the time travel, it reminds me of “Secret” (Taiwanese movie with Jay Chou) or “The Lake House” (American movie with Sandra Bullock). But it’s different from those movies because it’s much simpler. So-Eun and Ji-In don’t cross time dimentions and meet each other. They only meet each other in their respective realities. I think the main focus is about destiny and also romance. I’m pretty sure Ji-In falls in love with So-Eun, but he never actually says it out loud…to her. I liked the bittersweetness of the movie, but felt that the movie was really “safe”. The relationships are very uneventful and the viewer doesn’t get a sense of the character’s motivations. The only character that shares their true feelings is Ji-In’s “girlfriend”…or stalker, if you will.

So, this movie was sweet and I found the ending satisfying…to an extent. It’s not a movie I would watch again, and it’s not very memorable. The twist in the movie was unexpected and bittersweet, which made the movie interesting. Yup, that’s it. You can watch it on crunchyroll.com or mysoju.com.

Tags: Ha Ji-Won, Kim Ha-neul, Park Young-Woo, Yoo Ji-Tae