''Lovers Vanished'' (; lit. "Before the Storm") is a 2010

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

n film, directed by Cho Chang-ho as both a love story and a character drama. It stars

Kim Nam-gil Kim Nam-gil () is a South Korean actor, producer, director, singer and philanthropist. He is best known from leading roles in disaster blockbuster '' Pandora'' (2016); crime thriller ''Memoir of a Murderer '' (2017); adventure film '' The Pirate ...

and

Hwang Woo-seul-hye Hwang Woo-seul-hye (born Hwang Jin-hee on August 10, 1979) is a South Korean actress. She made her acting debut as a " dumb blonde"-type character in the critically praised black comedy '' Crush and Blush'' (2008). Hwang has since played leading ...

as two people who find love at the edge of life.

Plot

Su-in, an ex master chef, gets falsely accused of murdering his wife and is sentenced to life in prison. After several failed attempts to escape and prove his innocence, he hears that prisoners with

AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual m ...

can be freed on compassionate grounds. Su-in approaches Sang-byung, an

HIV positive The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of '' Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the immu ...

inmate, and deliberately injects Sang-byung's blood into his body, only to discover too late that the rumor is untrue and merely results in his being transferred to the prison hospital. Sang-byung helps the desperate Su-in to escape on condition he pays a visit to a certain remote café by the coast in Jeju Island. Su-in succeeds in escaping and confronts his wife's lover and real murderer, who's since become a priest. But after confessing to the crime, the priest commits suicide by jumping over a cliff. With no hope of clearing his name and nowhere to turn, Su-in goes to café Luth, run by Mia, a beautiful magician with a painful past of her own. Mia ends up hiring Su-in as a chef, and the two slowly grow closer, knowing that their time together is limited.

Cast

as Kim Su-in *

as Yeo Mia *Jung Yoon-min as Sang-byung *Nam Sung-jin as Ki-yeon * Kim Jeong-min as Min-jung *Kim Jae-rok as priest *

Yoon Je-moon Yoon Je-moon (born March 9, 1970) is a South Korean actor. He appears in theater, film and television, notably in the movies ''The Man Next Door'' (2010) and ''Dangerously Excited'' (2012), and the TV series '' The End of the World'' (2013). F ...

as Jo, the shopkeeper *Oh Hye-seok as Jin-ho *Baek Jung-hee as grandmother *Jeon Jin-gi as detective *Han Cheol-woo as detective *Noh Tae-hyeon as Dong-yeol *Moon Jeong-woong as hospital police officer

Release

Filming took place in March to June 2009. ''Lovers Vanished'' initially found difficulty gaining a theatrical release, but with the popularity of actor

's 2009 television series ''

Queen Seondeok Queen Seondeok of Silla ( ko, 선덕여왕 ; 595~610 – 17 February 647/January 8, Lunar Calendar) reigned as Queen Regnant of Silla, one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea, from 632 to 647. She was Silla's twenty-seventh ruler, and its first re ...

'', the film secured an April 1, 2010 release date.

References

External links

* * * * {{IMDb title, 1670690, Lovers Vanished 2010 films 2010s Korean-language films 2010 romantic drama films HIV/AIDS in film South Korean romantic drama films South Korean LGBT-related films 2010s South Korean films LGBT-related romantic drama films