“Be With You” (지금 만나러 갑니다)

By Jae-Ha Kim
Substack
June 22, 2018

☆☆☆☆
Woo-Jin (played by So Ji-Sub)
Soo-Ah (played by Son Ye-Jin)
Ji-Ho (played by Kim Ji-hwan)
↑Note: Korean names denote the surname followed by the given name.

I knew going in that “Be With You” is a love story, where the plot is driven by the wife’s death and a fantastical premise of coming back to life. But the ending was unexpected…in a good way…and tied the film up in a way that gave me all the feels.

As the story unfolds, Soo-Ah has been dead for a year. Her husband, Woo-Jin, was a former swimming champion. But an illness forced him to quit. He works a menial job at the local pool, where a smitten co-worker gently flirts with him. But he is oblivious to her attention. He is still mourning Soo-Ah’s death. He’s also busy raising their first grader, Ji-Ho, who clings onto the hope his mother will return one day.

When he needs his mother’s comfort, he makes do by curling up amongst her clothes in her armoire.

That was the premise of a book his mother had made for him — that a Mother Penguin was watching her baby from way up in the clouds. But during the rainy season, she came would return to (temporarily) be with her child.

And that is what happens one day. But there’s a catch: The woman who re-appears has lost her memory and is confused. She doesn’t realize she’s a wife and mother, but allows her memory to be jogged by Woo-Jin’s anecdotes (and home videos). As the days pass, she begins to remember more of her past.

In a review in the Korea Herald, its film critic made an odd observation: “Their chemistry with the child actor is quite astonishing, which is somewhat ironic considering that the both are childless.”

Wow. It’s almost as if a good actor can portray someone they’re not. Interesting…🙄

The acting by all three lead actors is superb. Younger actors play them as high school students. And though So and Son are both much too old to realistically pass as college students, their performances are so subtle and sweet that they beautifully convey the angst and thrill of first love.

Kim Ji-hwan is precociously adorable as Ji-Ho. And you have no doubt that (as his mother says) he will grow up to be as handsome as his father. (And he does. Park Seo-Joon makes a cameo appearance as the 18-year-old version of Ji-Ho.)

Release Dates: South Korea: March 14, 2018; United States: April 6, 2018; Singapore: April 19, 2018.

Running Time: 132 minutes.

Spoiler Alert: Soo-Ah kept a diary, including entries about her high school crush on Woo-Jin. When she has to return to the clouds (so to speak), she leaves it behind for him. He learns that when she was a graduate student, she saw him walking away and ran across the street to catch up to him. She was hit by a van and remained in a coma for six weeks. When she awoke, she had jumped eight years into the future — as Woo-Jin’s wife and Ji-Ho’s mother. Through more time travel —  which, frankly, was confusing — she had the choice to carve out a different life for herself, where she could grow older in a new relationship. Or, she could be with Woo-Jin and Ji-Ho, knowing that she would die at the age of 32. “I survived that accident, because you and Ji-Ho were desperately waiting for me in the future,” she wrote in her journal. The film ends with Woo-Jin sitting alone outside. Though never said, it’s strongly implied that he never remarried after her death.

© 2018 JAE-HA KIM | All Rights Reserved