My Piano [호로비츠를 위하여]

My Piano [호로비츠를 위하여]

Starring:
Uhm Jung-Hwa, Park Yong-Woo, Shin Eui-Jae, Choi Seon-Ja, Yun Ye-Ri
Directed by:
Kwon Hyeong-Jin
Written by:
Kim Min-Suk
Genre:
family, drama
Year:
May 25, 2006
Country:
Korea
Language:
Korean
Runtime:
108 mins
Media:
DVD, VCD, VHS
Rating:
8
Price:
US$ 2.5 M

Synopsis

KIM Ji-su is a 31-year-old single woman who once wanted to become a famous pianist like Horowitz. Her dream was shattered but she was able to go on by teaching children to play piano. One day, she discovers a young boy Gyung-min, is a musical genius. She starts to give him intensive music lessons, preparing him for competition, but it does not turn out well. But later, when all seems lost, Ji-su is utterly shocked when she realizes that Gyung-min carries a secret that will change her life forever.
Sales or release dates & Box Office
Release date in South Korea : 2006/05/25
South Korea Box Office : 418,081 admissions ( 2006.06.11 )

Location

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilx36vWPtZ4

Review

Korean films that are centered around classic music in general are rare these days, and even more rare are the good quality ones. “My Piano” centered around two characters, Kim Ji-Su (Uhm Jung-hwa) and Gyung-min (Shin Hui-jae). The interaction between the two characters is ultimately what makes this movie so good. Jung-hwa really pulls off a great emotional performance, and as a musician and classical music lover, i throughly enjoyed the music performances in the movie.

There are however some problems and holes in the storyline. For one that character played by Park Yong-Woo doesn’t really seem to have any significance throughout the movie. He’s just simply there, and pops in once in a while. There was no romantic chemistry between the characters, and in fact he seemed to annoy Ji-Su whenever he showed up, or she simply used him when she needed him. It also doesn’t make sense that she wouldn’t get more students, when she was able to in the beginning of the movie. Surely, she could make Gyung-min understand that her having students to teach means he get’s to stay with her…not to mention that several times during the movie we saw Ji-Su interact with her peers whom could have certainly helped her had she asked. I felt the ending and time jump was severely botched and most of it seemed to be tacked on the end as an after-thought. Even sending Gyung-min overseas she could have kept in contact with him throughout the years, and he could have visited…her being shocked at the end, and suddenly realizing it’s him doesn’t make any sense, and was a big let down for me. I didn’t like the subtle message that by studying or sending someone abroad was the end all solution for their problems and that everything would be fine by that.

The movie did a great job of sucking us in, and pulling on our heart strings. The performance by Um Jung-hwa and Shin Hui-jae were certainly award winning. However, the horrible “drive thru” ending that did nothing to bring the movie to a climax was a huge let down and left me with a bad taste in my mouth. It brought what was a GREAT movie down to a decent movie. Well, at least the guy’s German was good.

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