Actress Ku Hye Sun is quite the renaissance woman it seems. She is pretty accomplished and not yet 30 years of age. She is an actor, director, writer, illustrator, and singer. I admit to knowing nothing about her and her short film, Pieces of Memory, featuring Yoo Seung Ho, is my intro to her. I don’t even know her as an actress because I am probably one out of about a billion K-drama fans who has never seen Boys Over Flowers. <gasp>
In this short film which she wrote, directed, scored and even sung the theme song for, we have a gentle commentary about the passage of life and how the memories we collect determine how sweet (or not) it was. Touching and poignant, the film takes us through a journey of one man in five stages of his life as he contemplates and looks back on it. We get the beautiful doe-eyed Yoo Seung Ho portraying the man in the third stage of life, or as the young man.
This is the time in life when you are no longer a child or a teen but on the verge of starting to embark upon the journey as an adult filled with hope and verve of being ‘the conductor’ of your life. Best laid plans, right? There is very little dialogue and primarily voice overs but the message is thought-provoking and lovely with lines like, “Fragments of sweet memories came to me”, “Life was perfectly beautiful just so long as there were those sweet memories.”
It is the first Korean film to be shot using 4K3D technology which gives vivid and outstanding 3D effects as well as beautifully enhanced imagery. The set is immaculate and precise and the colors vivid and rich. This is a beautifully shot film and won Ku Hye Sun the Young Director Prize at the 2013 Seoul International Silver Film Festival.
Seung Ho has such a nice presence utilizing his gorgeous eyes to pretty much communicate his thoughts throughout the film. I love eclectic independent film work like this and believe it suits Seung Ho perfectly.
[Source: ygfamily.com/Video credit: YG Entertainment]