| There is no question that Il Mare is a wonderful romance story, although the subtle Korean style may not appeal to an average North American audience. What it reminds me of, funny enough, is Ladyhawke (remember Michelle Pfeiffer?). Once you make this connection, however, it's not difficult to notice the striking similarity. In both stories, the romantic pair does not meet until the very end, but for different reasons. In Ladyhawke, she is a hawk by day had he a wolf by night. The situation in Il Mare is far more complicated and will take some explaining to unravel.
Before the unraveling of the Time element in Il Mare, it is interesting to note the difference in the way the two endings are handled. In Ladyhawke, when the curse was broken and both finally appear together in human form, he gave her a fierce embrace, lifted her slightly off the ground and spun around in a final scene that fills the audience with ecstasy and joy of a final fulfillment long denied. In Il Mare, the finale is handled in a much more reserved manner, when they didn't even touch physically. The joy experienced by the audience here is more subtle.
The mystery of Time has provided the plot for many a movie, among the most notable of which are: Time Machine, Somewhere in Time, Back to the Future. Similar to these three, the key element in Il mare is an attempt to change something in the past, or to create an alternative "life line", so to speak.
We mustn't however let the similarity obscure the one big difference. Unlike any of the other three, there's nobody in Il Mare who actually "traveled" through Time i.e. physically move back to a different Time. This is what makes this movie so clever and unique. It avoids altogether the paradox that haunts the idea of time travel: meeting yourself (your "double").
Il Mare does not have this problem. The interaction is only through a magical mail box which delivers letters between two Times, 1998 and 2000, to be exact. It all starts in 2000, when the girl puts a letter in the mailbox of the house she is vacating, intending it for the next occupant. The reply, to her great surprise, comes from a guy in 1998. Now, we have a situation in which the girl knows in general what has happened since 1998 although she does not know specifically where this guy is in her "present" of 2000. The guy, on the other hand, knows that the girl can tell him things that have happened between their respective "present"s of 1998 and 2000.
They finally agrees to meet at a Time that is "future" to both of them, which is two years away for him, but just the next week for her. But when he does not show up at the rendezvous, she is left wondering whether he has changed he mind. Then comes the final climax when she finds out that he was killed in an accident back in 1998 and desperately tries to send a letter back to warn him. In the happy ending, we are back in the opening scene, when he shows up BEFORE she puts that first letter in the mailbox. The interesting final state of affair is that the guy knows what has gone on "before", i.e. the exchange of letters, including the final one that warns him and saves him from the fatal accident. For the girl, however, this "reality" has been wiped out entirely! As far as she is concerned, she has never put the first letter in the mailbox and will just live happily ever after with this guy she just met.
There are other subtleties that I wouldn't go further into. The plot has been very carefully woven, with great attention to details. The movie is well written and well acted, with lovely music, beautiful cinematography, and altogether well worth seeing. |
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