The Classic starts with Ji-hae and Soo-Kyoung attending the same university. Soo-kyoung and Sang-min are dating, but Ji-hae also had a crush on Sang-min. One day Ji-hae finds an old dusty box full of letters and a diary of her mother's first love, coincidentally similar to her situation with Sang-min. The movie then shifts to 1968, where Ji-hae's mother, Sung Joo-hee and Oh Joon-ha first met in the countryside, which is also the most romantic and memorable journey in the movie. Unfortunately Joo-hee was already a fiancé to Yoon Tae-soo, Joon-ha's best friend, through an arrange marriage by his father.

The director Kwak Jae-Yong link Ji-hae and her mother Joo-hee's story by occasionally shift back and forth between the two. Most of the movie was about Ji-hae's mother. So, there wasn't much story about Ji-hae and Sang-min. This gives less character development to Sang-min. The director also presented similarities and repetitions in events happened during Ji-hae's time and Joo-hee's time. For example, Ji-hae and Sang-min running in the rain was similar to the countryside scene where Joo-hee and Joon-ha were caught in the storm. Also, the scene where the group walks home from a school polka dance, Joon-ha and Joo-hee constantly glancing at each other was similar to Ji-hae and Sang-min in the art museum.

The pacing of the movie seems a bit slow in the middle. This leads me wondering where the story and the characters are heading toward to. Then the climax of the movie came in to resolve that problem. The movie also presented me a short battle scene that reminds me so much of Forest Gump.

The ending is where the director finally tied both stories together. The ending was sad, happy, and very emotional. I haven't seen such an emotional ending since Final Fantasy X. It is a video game, but it has a well developed story and characters. While the ending in Final Fantasy X is not similar to this movie, but the emotional impact was felt the same. As the character Sang-min said while directing his play, "you have to feel both happy and heartbroken."

In conclusion, this movie is simply also one of the best films of the year. If Korea had their own Academy Awards, this movie should be nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Actor, Best Score, and Best Cinematography. The movie offered so much memorable scenes that were beautifully captured by its cinematography and the music that accompanied it, this movie itself is a classic!