My Dear Enemy
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''My Dear Enemy'' (; lit. "One Fine Day") is a
road movie A road movie is a film genre in which the main characters leave home on a road trip, typically altering the perspective from their everyday lives. Road movies often depict travel in the hinterlands, with the films exploring the theme of alienatio ...
starring
Jeon Do-yeon Jeon Do-yeon (; born February 11, 1973) is a South Korean actress. She won Best Actress at the 60th Cannes Film Festival, making her the second Korean actress to win an acting award at a prestigious film festival, and Best Performance by an Ac ...
and
Ha Jung-woo Kim Sung-hoon (born March 11, 1978), better known as Ha Jung-woo (), is a South Korean actor, film director, screenwriter and film producer. One of the highest grossing actors in South Korea, Ha's starring films have accumulated more than 100 mil ...
as two ex-lovers who reacquaint themselves while driving around Seoul. The film takes place over one rather uneventful day, and subtle emotions and chemistry between the actors propel the narrative. This is the fourth film by
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 director
Lee Yoon-ki Lee Yoon-ki (; born 1965), is a South Korean film director and screenwriter. Career Lee Yoon-ki earned his Master of Arts, MA in business administration/economics at the University of Southern California. After returning to Korea, he worked as a ...
.


Plot

Lee Yoon-ki Lee Yoon-ki (; born 1965), is a South Korean film director and screenwriter. Career Lee Yoon-ki earned his Master of Arts, MA in business administration/economics at the University of Southern California. After returning to Korea, he worked as a ...
's deadpan comedy trails a pair of former lovers – he's a charismatic romantic and she's a no-nonsense realist – who bump into each other one year down the road. Hee-soo isn't the type of person to say what's on her mind, but you can tell that something is wrong. When, at a horseracing stadium, she tracks down her ex-boyfriend Byung-woon, her voice is laced with fury. "I want my money," she says, skipping even the barest of greetings. Byung-woon, for his part, looks like a man trapped. Despite his nervous smiles and warm assurances (that seem slightly dodgy), you can guess from the outset that he doesn't have the () that he borrowed from her a year earlier. "Don't worry," he tells her, "for sure I can get it for you by the end of the day." Not believing him, but not willing to let him out of her sight until she gets paid, she accompanies him for the day as he visits various old friends and acquaintances (all women) and tries to sweet talk his way into a loan. As both day and debt are whittled down, the pair fall back into old patterns, rehash unsettled gripes, and slowly come to see each other in a new light.


Cast

''My Dear Enemy'' is an exercise in subtle comedy, anchored by the delightful chemistry of the pitch-perfect lead performers.
Jeon Do-yeon Jeon Do-yeon (; born February 11, 1973) is a South Korean actress. She won Best Actress at the 60th Cannes Film Festival, making her the second Korean actress to win an acting award at a prestigious film festival, and Best Performance by an Ac ...
, as the sensible, even-tempered Hee-soo counterbalances the hysterical mother of a murdered child she played in ''
Secret Sunshine ''Secret Sunshine'' () is a 2007 South Korean drama film directed by Lee Chang-dong. The screenplay based on the short fiction "The Story of a Bug" by Lee Cheong-jun that focuses on a woman as she wrestles with the questions of grief, madness an ...
'', for which she was named best actress at
Cannes Cannes ( , , ; oc, Canas) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a communes of France, commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions I ...
in 2007.
Ha Jung-woo Kim Sung-hoon (born March 11, 1978), better known as Ha Jung-woo (), is a South Korean actor, film director, screenwriter and film producer. One of the highest grossing actors in South Korea, Ha's starring films have accumulated more than 100 mil ...
, too, is winning as the compulsively charming, if unfailingly inept Byung-woon (a role also in stark opposition to his previous outing as the serial killer antagonist in
Na Hong-jin Na Hong-jin (, born 1974) is a South Korean film director, producer and screenwriter. Na has won a multitude of awards with his films and most known for violent thriller and horror characteristics in his films. Na first became recognised after ...
's ''
The Chaser The Chaser are an Australian satirical comedy group, best known for their television programmes and satirical news masthead. The group take their name from their satirical newspaper, a publication known to challenge conventions of taste. Th ...
''). About working opposite the reputed actress, Ha said Jeon quieted his nervousness with her easy manner. The two had actually appeared together three years before in the 2005 hit
drama series In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-gen ...
''
Lovers in Prague ''Lovers in Prague'' () is a 2005 South Korean television drama series starring Jeon Do-yeon, Kim Joo-hyuk, Kim Min-jun and Yoon Se-ah. It aired on SBS from September 24 to November 20, 2005 on Saturdays and Sundays at 21:45 for 18 episodes. I ...
'', where Ha played a supporting role as the heroine's bodyguard. "I can't believe that I have risen to play opposite Jeon in such a short time frame," he said. "While playing her bodyguard in the drama, there were many scenes where I was chauffeuring for her. I remember one particular scene where she was crying, and I was so moved I almost shed tears. Jeon is a great actress who inspires those around her even before the audience." Jeon said that she was the one who was grateful in the partnership. "I didn't know we'd be cast together because of our age difference (Ha is five years her junior), but Jung-woo was able to come far because he was already a good actor back then. Jung-woo is a very versatile actor and really supported me."


Production

Director
Lee Yoon-ki Lee Yoon-ki (; born 1965), is a South Korean film director and screenwriter. Career Lee Yoon-ki earned his Master of Arts, MA in business administration/economics at the University of Southern California. After returning to Korea, he worked as a ...
had been in a bookstore in Korea, scanning the display of bestsellers, when a lonely little stack of the Japanese
novella A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian ''novella'' meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) facts ...
''One Fine Day'' by Azuko Taira caught his eye, "like one quiet, lonely person drawn to another." He found the story different from the currently popular trendy Japanese fiction, "There’s something old-fashioned about it, something very unique and intimate, it felt like an old, forgotten fable," and thought he'd like to make a film that would touch people's hearts the way the book had touched his. The title was a problem, since many films had the same title. Lee thought of the term "enemy" because it can be used in Korean to refer to lovers, friends, even children. In adapting the story for the screen, Lee expanded on the novella, adding to the number of people the ex-lovers encounter, and changed some details (including the ending scene). The film translates beautifully into the Seoul urban-scape, as the narrative takes one through the city's high rises and small alleys to absorb its mellow autumnal colors. Even though a large proportion of shots are taken beside the steering wheel or through a dashboard, the fluid cinematography still sustains visual interest. The film took 37 days to shoot at around 58 locations in
Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...
, including the back streets of
Yongsan Yongsan District (, ) is one of the 25 districts of Seoul, South Korea. Yongsan has a population of 231,685 (2020) and has a geographic area of , and is divided into 19 '' dong'' (administrative neighborhoods). Yongsan is located in central Seoul ...
,
Jongno Jongno or Jong-ro ( ko, 종로), literally meaning "Bell Street", is a trunk road and one of the oldest major east–west thoroughfares in Seoul, South Korea. Jongno connects Gwanghwamun Plaza to Dongdaemun. The area surrounding Jongno is a p ...
,
Itaewon Itaewon (; IPA ) is multi-cultural commercial area located in Seoul, South Korea. it is one of the most popular neighborhoods in Seoul, known for its nightlife and trendy restaurants. Etymology The name Itaewon was originally derived from the n ...
and a few overpasses and crossroads. Music director Kim Jeong-beom composed a
jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
film score with influences from 1930-40s American music as well as
Latin jazz Latin jazz is a genre of jazz with Latin American rhythms. The two main categories are Afro-Cuban jazz, rhythmically based on Cuban popular dance music, with a rhythm section employing ostinato patterns or a clave, and Afro-Brazilian jazz, whic ...
. The music greatly enhances the atmosphere in the film. Apart from the
long take In filmmaking, a long take (also called a continuous take or continuous shot) is a shot with a duration much longer than the conventional editing pace either of the film itself or of films in general. Significant camera movement and elaborate blo ...
that opens the film, Lee's quietly assured direction avoids stylistic flourishes and puts the actor's performances at the center of the film – though the irregular rhythms of his editing help to augment a sense of tension between the two leads. This tension – fueled by angry resentment on Hee-soo's part and guilt on Byung-woon's – functions more or less as the film's story, in that it slowly transforms over the course of the day.


International release

The film had its U.S. premiere at the
San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival CAAMFest, known prior to 2013 as the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival (SFIAAFF), is presented every March in the San Francisco Bay Area in the United States as the nation’s largest showcase for new Asian American and Asia ...
on March 12, 2009.


Awards and nominations


References


External links

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''My Dear Enemy''
at
MUBI Mubi (; stylized as MUBI; The Auteurs before 2010) is a global curated film streaming platform, production company and film distributor. Mubi produces and theatrically distributes films by emerging and established filmmakers, which are exclusivel ...
{{Lee Yoon-ki 2008 films 2008 romantic drama films South Korean romantic drama films South Korean road movies 2000s road movies Films directed by Lee Yoon-ki Films set in Seoul Films based on short fiction 2000s Korean-language films Lotte Entertainment films Sponge Entertainment films 2000s South Korean films