The premise of ‘Il Mare’ is ludicrous and the music is generally awful as tends to be the case with these films, but I have a weird penchant for South Korean romance films. This is the synopsis:
In the year 1999, a young woman (Jun Ji-hyun) leaves her quaint seaside house and returns to the city, leaving in the mailbox a card for the next owner, with instructions to forward any mail of hers to the new address. In the year 1997, two years before, a jaded young architect (Lee Jung-Jae) moves into the same house--and finds the letter. His reply, which he slips into the mailbox, finds its way to her, beginning a parallel-time love story separated by a span of two years.
Sounds tenuous, and there are many holes in the whole time travel setup, but the film isn’t about the minutae of time travel or parallel realities. It’s more about the concept of fate, and love. It’s very well directed and the shots of he sea lodge especially are stunning.
Jun Ji-Hyun also starred in ‘My Sassy Girl’ a year later which has a lot of similarities to ‘Il Mare’ in terms of tone, the romance angle and a slight Sci-Fi element. Look past the slushy music cues and you’ll find an achingly beautiful film.

7.4/10