Pusan

Fair Love

Peyeo leobeu (South Korea)

By DEREK ELLEY

A CJ Entertainment release of a Luz y Sonidos production. (International sales: CJ Entertainment, Seoul.) Produced by Shin Yeon-shick. Directed, written by Shin Yeon-shick.
 
With: Ahn Sung-ki, Lee Ha-na.
 

A May-September friendship provides two fine roles for Korean vet Ahn Sung-ki and young TV drama star Lee Ha-na in the quiet charmer "Fair Love." Determinedly going against the glossy, commercial grain of most South Korean love stories, this first commercial outing by writer-director Shin Yeong-shick, who's come out of the indie ranks ("Piano Lesson," "A Great Actor") almost unnoticed, stakes out major ground with its subtle script and sensitive handling. Fests and cable outlets should take notice.

Ahn plays Hyeong-man, a slightly grouchy, 50-ish bachelor who's devoted to his tiny camera-repair business with a couple of young helpers. When an old friend, Gi-hyeok, dies, Hyeong-man looks up his 25-year-old daughter, Nam-eun (Lee), whom he's known since she was a kid.

Hyeong-man is only doing his duty for his late pal, with whom he always had a combative relationship: Gi-hyeok was constantly in debt and died owing Hyeong-man most of his life savings. But Nam-eun, who doesn't have many social graces herself, takes to Hyeong-man, and the two start to see each other regularly, with the young woman doing his laundry.

Film settles into a rhythm of long talks between the pair, separated by scenes at Hyeong-man's workshop. As they get to know each other, with complete honesty and no thought of anything but a dutiful friendship, the relationship slowly ripens.

Marbled with plenty of straight-faced humor, the first hour beautifully captures the way in which a friendship can gradually morph into something else even when both parties aren't in "courting" mode. Nam-eun is no great beauty and hardly the most emotionally stable person, and Hyeong-man is very set in his ways, but suddenly he realizes he's fallen in love.

When Hyeong-man tells an ornery priest friend, the latter is appalled because of the age difference -- as are all of Hyeong-man's other friends and relatives. But he's super-cool about it. "To me, she's just a woman," he says.

Ahn is excellent as a guy who professes not to know much about the opposite sex -- a scene in which Hyeong-man treats Nam-eun to an expensive Western meal on her birthday is a gem -- but Lee more than holds her own as a young woman who's just setting out in life and wants the older man to change along with her.

Lensed in wintry colors, in an unadorned style, the pic could use a little trimming, and a subplot involving a young customer who pours out his g.f. problems to Hyeong-man is an uneasy fit. Use of English-lingo songs on the soundtrack now and then is also misjudged.

Camera (color, HD-to-35mm), Choi Geon-heui; editor, Choi Yong-jin; music, Kim Shin-il; art director, Choi Yong-jin; sound (Dolby Digital), Kim Yong-ho. Reviewed at Pusan Film Festival (Gala Presentation), Oct. 11, 2009. Running time: 118 MIN.