1990｜114 MIN | Romance

DIRECTOR JANG Sun-woo

CAST PARK Joong-hoon, CHOI Myung-gil, YOO Hye-ri

RELEASE DATE March 31, 1990

Following his capitalism satire The Age of Success (1988), director JANG Sun-woo had originally envisioned making a political drama called ‘Red Room’ about the torture of an activist student but he switched his attention to the novel The Lovers of Woomook-baemi by PARK Young-han when he realized this would not be possible during the political climate at that time. This new project would become A Short Love Affair (1990) (though it is also referred to as The Lovers of Woomook-baemi, notably for its recent Blu-ray release by the Korean Film Archive). This workman class infidelity drama taking place in an earthy Seoul suburb is JANG’s third work and an important title in the Korean New Wave, showing us places and characters in Korea that up until then had a been a rare sight in cinema.

Bae Il-do lives with his wife and young child in Seoul but unable to keep up with the expensive city life, the family moves out to the suburbs in Woomook-baemi. There, Il-do finds work as a tailor where he meets the unhappy Gong-rye, who comes to work every day with fresh bruises from her abusive husband. Il-do quickly shows an interest in her and before long, the pair decides to board a night train and find themselves in a motel together. But in such a small neighborhood their amorous relationship can’t stay secret for long.

Leading the cast as Il-do was PARK Joong-hoon during what turned out to be one of the most important years of his career, which also saw him appear in PARK Kwang-su’s Korean New Wave coal miner’s drama Black Republic (1990) and LEE Myung-se’s romantic comedy My Love, My Bride (1990). JANG uses PARK’s youthful charisma to depict a character who masks his insecurity with outward machismo but is easily overpowered by his wife at home. CHOI Myung-gil plays the diffident and charming Gong-rye while YOO Hye-ri, in a ferocious turn, plays Il-do’s aggressive wife.

Detailing instances of infidelity and domestic abuse, A Short Love Affair explores how characters are pushed to emotional extremes by their economic and social circumstances. Never accusatory, JANG demonstrates empathy for each of his deeply flawed protagonists, while side characters, such as the chattering middle-aged women who work with Il-do and Gong-rye, add depth, detail, and tone to a deftly told tale of desire and desperation.

Imbued with realism and warmth for the working class, this complex character study and unusual romantic narrative that goes deep into the malaise of its characters, afforded them by their circumstances, is a characteristically unique work from JANG Sun-woo, a director who never failed to reinvent himself each time he sat in the director’s chair.