He Was Cool

He Was Cool (Korean: 그 놈은 멋있었다; RR: Geunomeun meoshisseotda; lit. "That Guy was Cool") is a 2004 South Korean film based on the same-titled 2001 Internet novel written by Guiyeoni.[1][2] The film was released in South Korean cinemas on July 23, 2004 and was the 35th most attended film of the year with 800,000 admissions.[3]

He Was Cool
He Was Cool poster
Hangul그 놈은 멋있었다
Revised RomanizationGeu nomeun meoshisseotda
McCune–ReischauerKŭ nomŭn mŏtissiŏtta
Directed byLee Hwan-kyung
Produced byKwak Jung-hwan
Screenplay byLee Hwan-kyung
Kim Young-seok
Story byGuiyeoni
Based onHe Was Cool
by Guiyeoni
StarringSong Seung-heon
Jeong Da-bin
Music byAhn Jeong-hun
CinematographyLee Kang-min
Edited byKim Sun-min
Distributed byHapdong Films
Release date
  • July 23, 2004 (2004-07-23)
Running time
113 minutes
CountrySouth Korea
LanguageKorean

Synopsis

The story is about a cheerful high school student named Han Ye-won (Jung Da-bin). She is a sweet, clumsy and warm girl. On the other hand, there is Ji Eun-sung (Song Seung-heon), a student from a vocational school and a well-known bully. He is hot-tempered and rude but deep inside he longs to be loved.[4]

One day, clumsily, Ye-won leaves a message on the school website to reply to Eun-sung's impolite message. She is shocked when someone calls her cell phone and threatens her. Gradually, her best friend, Lee Kyung-won, tells her who Eun-sung is. He sends Ye-won a text message: He will wait for her in front of the main gate. She is so scared that she and Kyung-won decide to jump over the school wall. Unfortunately, the moment Ye-won jumps, Eun-sung is standing exactly at the other side of wall. She falls on him and their lips meet accidentally. Raising his voice, Eun-sung asks her to take responsibility; she is astonished. His friend explains that Eun-sung has never even held hands with a girl. Since she is the first girl who kissed him, as a consequence, she must marry him.

Events happen quickly. At the beginning, Ye-won does not have any feelings for Eun-sung. She even rejects his invitation to come to his birthday party. Unknowingly, Eun-sung has fallen in love with her; but he is not the kind of guy who knows how to express his feelings. He is jealous when Ye-won is approached by other guys but he does not know how to be with someone he loves.

Although he is rude and bad-tempered, Eun-sung always pardons Ye-won's faults and clumsiness. However, he can't bear it when he finds out that Ye-won went out with Kim Han-sung (Lee Ki-woo), an older student whom he hates. Broken-hearted, Eun-sung decides to leave Korea and follow his mother to the USA.

A year later Ye-won is seen with Han-sung, discussing whether she is scared for her college entrance exams. During the listening portion of her exams, a quote from Romeo and Juliet is mentioned, making Ye-won recall the memory of her and Eun-sung in the park where they promised that no matter what, they would reunite in front of the telephone booth at the first snowfall. Ye-won stops what she is doing and runs to the park. She waits there as the scene rolls back to the fantasy she had a year ago and she starts to cry because Eun-sung is not there. As she turns around, a rabbit is hopping towards her, the same rabbit she gave to Eun-sung as a gift. She looks up and Eun-sung is there. She yells at him, saying, "Why did you leave without saying goodbye?" And Eun-sung replies, "True love requires no words." Ye-won runs to him and they embrace.

The film ends with Eun-sung's childhood memory of some opening event of an elementary school where the only kid that would kiss Eun-sung was Ye-won. An interesting aspect to this is that earlier on in the film, Ye-won uses Eun-sung's cellphone to make a mini-video of her bedroom. There she captures footage of an old photo from when she was little, showing her and a friend. It turns out that this friend is actually the little Eun-sung, hinting at the connection between the two. When Eun-sung watches the video on his cell phone towards the end of the film, he is surprised to see himself and remembers that Ye-won was that little girl.

Cast

See also

References
  1. Shin, Hae-in (22 July 2004). "Delinquent teenagers: a new cultural trend?". The Korea Herald. Retrieved 2013-07-10.
  2. Soh, Joon (22 July 2004). "Teen Romances Go From Internet to Big Screen". The Korea Times via Hancinema. Retrieved 2013-07-10.
  3. "Commercial Releases in 2004: Ranked Box-Office Results". Koreanfilm.org. Retrieved 2013-07-10.
  4. Yang, Sung-jin (22 July 2004). "The Guy was Cool caters to teen love fantasies". The Korea Herald. Retrieved 2013-07-10.
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