First Love
Is “first love” a sweet subject forever?
A movie titled “Architecture 101” was released a few years ago. It’s common for hit movies to be forgotten within 6 months, yet “Architecture 101” is still quoted in newspapers and remains in people’s memory.
It’s become a classic.
I went to see “Architecture 101” after reading in a newspaper that the movie had already sold several millions of tickets.
I had secured a small Hanok (a Korean style house) to use as an atelier in Seochon, and kept it empty as it hadn’t been repaired. They filmed “Architecture 101” in that very house for over 2 months.
I couldn’t memorize the title of the movie – as “Architecture 101” was rather an unfamiliar title for a movie, and the names of the actors and actresses were also unfamiliar to me – I had said that I would visit but never actually made the one-minute walk.
I remember young people saying they were moved at the end of the movie after not being impressed for most of the movie.
Four years ago, I boarded a flight to Jeju after reading an article that said the house in Jeju that the architect (played by Uhm Tae-ung) in the movie designed had turned into a café. I wouldn’t have hurried had it not been for the connection with my atelier.
I depended on taxi drivers to find the way but my taxi driver and the locals had no idea where it was and I ended up wondering around for a while.
Two things surprised me when I entered the house which had been rebuilt after the movie set was torn down: first, the long line of people standing in front of the house that I found after turning corner after corner with each of my taxi drivers, and second, the wonderful sea which spread out in front of the small house and exceeded all my expectations.
A few years have passed but the impressions from then have stuck with me; I picked up a taxi again even though there were many other places to visit on this visit to Jeju. As expected the house at Wimiri has become famous since then and it is now a tourist attraction that everyone in Jeju knows.
I was afraid that the second visit would be disappointing after the impressive first encounter; but the sea viewable from the second floor of the house was still as extraordinary as ever.
Right next to the café was a new small room named ‘Seungmin’s Workshop’ – the architect in the movie. The sea and the sky viewed from a horizontal long window on the right was dazzling. There was also a shabby table and stool. Showing on one of the walls was “Architecture 101”.
I sat with the blue sea on my right side and looked up to watch the movie that I had seen a few years ago.
This is the very movie that has kept every man in Korea awake with memories of his first love.
I wasn’t that deeply impressed with the movie when I watched it at a theater so I intended to sit down to watch it for just a few minutes. However watching the movie again knowing the flow and the ending well I sympathized with the whole storyline and facial expressions and lines of the actors and actresses. I cried and my handkerchief got wet. I sat there for a while after credits rolled.
I remembered someone saying that the movie touched the audience without needing a violent scene or a sex scene.
Many people wanted to see the atelier at the small Hanok of Nuha-Dong, the core location of the movie about first love. They couldn’t leave the place even though they knew the movie was a made-up story.
People are heartbroken by unfulfilled love, yet I guess people keep their first love deep in their heart.
That is why the alleys of Nuha-Dong Seoul and Wimiri Jeju continue to attract people.
We were all someone’s first love
