Decisions might take a moment, but often their consequences can last a lifetime. Hours away from the moment that would change his life forever, attorney Hyun Woo (Yoo Ji Tae of Oldboy and Antarctic Journal) calls his girlfriend Min Joo (Kim Ji Soo of Romance and This Charming Girl), telling her to wait for him at the coffee shop inside the mall, as he had work to finish. The two had just chosen the apartment they would live in, and were preparing their wedding. But on that day, June 29th, 1995, Min Joo became a victim of one of the darkest moments in Korea during the mid-90s: the collapse of a mall which killed over 500 people and injured close to a thousand. Ten years later and still affected by this tragic loss, Hyun Woo receives a package containing a diary Min Joo wrote ten years earlier. He starts visiting all the places described in the diary, his memories re-emerging like an old wound one tries to forget about but can't erase. And when young Se Jin (Uhm Ji Won of Tale of Cinema and Running Wild) appears mysteriously at more than one of those places, confusion enters Hyun Woo's mind.
Presented at the 11th Pusan International Film Festival, director Kim Dae Seung's Traces of Love is once again an eclectic proof of how much Kim likes to subvert genre conventions. After working as an assistant director for some of the biggest names in the industry (Im Kwon Taek, Jung Ji Young) in masterpieces like White Badge, Sopyonje and The Taebaek Mountains, Kim debuted with a strange melting pot of genre conventions and new vibes, Bungee Jumping of Their Own. Starring Lee Byung Hun and the late Lee Eun Ju, the film mixed simple melodrama conventions with a touch of homosexuality, fantasy and more. His second film was even more surprising: an expertly directed historical drama mixed with thriller tropes, Blood Rain. Now back with his third film, Kim plays with time in the same ways which made Ditto and Il Mare hits a few years ago, employing the talent of Yoo Ji Tae, who's slowly finding his own voice as an actor, and the ever talented Kim Ji Soo. |