The Classic begins with the framing story of a young woman named Ji-Hye, who opens up a box she’d always see her mother cry about. She begins reading the letters and diary inside and relives the events of her mother’s first love through flashback.
Joo-hee, the mother, meets Joo-ha one summer and they develop a connection after a fun day, but never see each other again until a year later. At that time, Joo-ha’s friend Tae-Soo is being set-up with the daughter of a politician, and he wants Joo-ha to write the love letters for him. To Joo-ha’s surprise, Joo-hee, the girl he met a year ago is the politician’s daughter, and their relationship grows to create the obvious love triangle between the three. Meanwhile, parallel events seem to happen in the present, as Ji-hye develops feelings for her friend’s boyfriend Sang-Min.
While Kwak Jae-yong’s direct follow-up to My Sassy Girl becomes an ode to the clichés and classics that he previously mocked, he does not approach the project with any bit of irony. He demonstrates his approach through one particular scene, where Ji-hye reads a line in a letter about a “romantic breeze being sent” to her mother, and her first impression is that it’s incredibly cheesy. Then she thinks about and decides to deem it classic.
From there on out, Kwak decides he has free reign to pack his film full of sniffles, multiple pouring rain scenes, and conflicts of love over friendship. He pulls off the tremendous task of skirting the issue of cliché by sucking his audience into the mother’s story at every possible turn. From blasting oldies tunes at a polka dancing lesson, to Joon-ha sneaking off from the girl he’s walking home while she drones on and on, The Classic creates an appealing romantic atmosphere with disarming bits of comedy to consistently bring a smile to your face. Gorgeous countryside visuals enhance the nostalgic mood as well.
Interspersed with the flashbacks are scenes from the daughter’s present day romance, which has its merits as a relieving break from the tears and melodrama. Audiences will hardly care for this subplot though, in part because the male lead, Jo In-seong plays his character with a dull edge in the face of the film’s other male stars. The story also barely compares to the inspired romance of the past, which is perhaps a point Kwak is making about classic and modern romances-- so the script makes the wise decision of treating it like a subplot, rather than a parallel story. Still, Son Ye-jin does a fine job at playing both the mother and the daughter, accentuating subtle differences and linking the two romances with charming performances.
The film’s only major misstep comes in the later segments of the flashback romance, which continues on for a half hour longer than it should. It takes a Pearl Harbor-like turn and desperately attempts to find a resolution despite flying way off course and taking on far too many war scenes for its own good.
The Classic succeeds in capturing a touching, nostalgic tale, but it makes an unwarranted turn towards the epic love story and loses us. Kwak’s follow-up cannot compare with his last romance on most counts—but then again, who expected that? Still, fans who didn’t mind the overblown melodrama in the epilogue of My Sassy Girl will most likely find themselves right at home for most of this pic.
Reviewed by Tarun
