[Review] Architecture 101

During Ramadhan and Eid holiday, I spent most of my time staying home. We didn't visit our grandma in my dad's hometown this year so we spent the last days of Ramadhan at home. My friends had already gone to their hometown and I kind of had nothing to do. I found staying home all day long boring so I decided to buy some movies and watched them while waiting for adzan--dinner moment. One of the movies I bought is Architecture 101, a Korean romance movie starring Uhm Tae-woong, Han Ga-in, Lee Je-hoon, and Bae Suzy. 

poster for Architecture 101

Synopsis

Architecture 101 (건축학개론) tells about Yang Seo-yeon (Han Ga-in) who meets Lee Seung-min (Uhm Tae-woong), an architect, to design a house for her. The site for Seo-yeon's new house is on her family home in Jeju island. Since Seung-min can't find designs which fancy Seo-yeon, both end up deciding to renovate the house, adding some new features and second story for the house. Seung-min and Seo-yeon spends their time in Jeju and it leads to Seung-min's fiancee, Eun-chae's jealousy. As the renovation goes, Seung-min reminisces the time when he was a college student. Seung-min and Seo-yeon (played by Lee Je-hoon and Bae Suzy) enrolled Introduction to Architecture class some years ago in college. The two first-year students lived in the same neighborhood and often times did their tasks together. One day Seo-yeon found an abandoned house and entered it, despite Seung-min's warning. Seo-yeon eventually cleaned the house and grew some plants there, saying that the house would be hers. As time went by, both grew feelings toward each other. Seung-min asked his friend, Nab-ddeuk, to teach him how to confess his feelings due to his inability to confess it. Nab-ddeuk suggested him asking Seo-yeon to meet at the abandoned house on the first day the snow fell. However, Seung-min saw Jae-wook, a rich senior of him--whom he knew liking Seo-yeon (and Seo-yeon said she liked him, too), taking drunk Seo-yeon to her house. Brokenhearted, Seung-min went home, leaving miniature of Seo-yeon's house he had made before. The guy met Nab-ddeuk, telling everything he saw and eventually cried. Days later, Seo-yeon met Seung-min, only to be treated coldly by him who asked her to get lost. On the day the first snow fell, Seo-yeon visited the abandoned house, in hope that Seung-min would come. However, Seung-min didn't come. Seo-yeon, brokenhearted, ended up leaving up her CD player and her favorite CD in that house. 

In the present day, the renovation is almost done. Seung-min can finally finish his work and the last night before farewell becomes emotional. Seung-min finds the miniature of house he made for Seo-yeon in a cardboard box and indignantly asked Seo-yeon the reason she keeps the miniature (which in the past was found by Seo-yeon as she passed garbage dump nearby her house). Seo-yeon tearfully explains the reason and tells Seung-min that he was her first love. Both end up sharing a kiss before farewell. The last scene shows Seung-min eventually flies to US with his fiancee, while Seo-yeon lives in her new house with her old father, sitting by the window while listening to her favorite CD from her old CD player she has received from Seung-min, indicating that Seung-min actually went to that house. 

House, Home, and Love

At first, I thought it was weird for young Seo-yeon, who was a music student, to enroll Introduction to Architecture class, for if I were her I'd not enroll the class since architecture wasn't my field. But her enrollment to architecture class apparently takes her to her first love. 

If such thing happens in real life, it's kind of fated, isn't it? 

Despite its I-think-it-is-bitter-enough ending, the movie is fascinating in terms of how it combines romance with architecture and how it features house as major item symbolizing love. The first time I saw the movie poster, I was expecting a romance with lots of depiction of house designing. However, I ended up watching a actually-it-is-a-melodrama romance. When Seo-yeon comes to ask Seung-min to design a new house for her, Seung-min asks her why she chose him (in which the reason is there, in the last minutes of the movie). It's revealed that Seung-min was Seo-yeon's first love and her unhappy marriage has somewhat led her to someone she really loves--Seung-min. The fact that Seung-min has already been engaged to Eun-chae strikes Seo-yeon who is seeking for a 'home'. Quoting what most people say about home that home is where love is there for you, it is implicitly shown that Seung-min is actually a 'home' for Seo-yeon (and the fact that Seo-yeon's marriage with her husband is dissatisfying strengthen the possibility that Seung-min is a real 'home' for Seo-yeon). When she realizes that someone else has already occupied that 'home' she's been searching for, she can do nothing but--as if we were on her shoes--feeling hurt. However, she still needs that 'home' though she knows she can't occupy it. 

So she comes up with the idea of Seung-min building a home for her. 

Someone means a home for you, yet you can't have it. It sounds like you know you've found a home but you can't live in. It's such a lower-lip-biting fact; the dream is right in front of you but you can't reach it. But merely smelling the scent of dream is not a sin, isn't it? As Seo-yeon knows that she can't have Seung-min back to her, she might think that it's okay for her to ask Seung-min to build a house for her--another place she can consider a 'home'. In other words, at least she has a house--a place she can call 'home'--which is designed by someone who means 'home' for her. 

The fact that Seung-min eventually designs a house for Seo-yeon may represent Seung-min's love toward Seo-yeon. Despite of his engagement to Eun-chae, still he keeps a spot in his heart for his first-love, Seo-yeon. The house itself can be said representing the two's love story. In the beginning of the movie, Seo-yeon's family home is seen neglected and kind of spooky. The neglected house (sort of) symbolizes the relationship between Seung-min and Seo-yeon: it is (actually) still there, but neglected. Seo-yeon's desire to renovate the house symbolizes her wish to have a better relationship with Seung-min (and later, probably, a making up). Seung-min's reluctant agreement to help designing a house for Seo-yeon may reflect his hesitation to make things up between him and Seo-yeon (and his engagement to Eun-chae may be the best reason for it). The house is then renovated, as Seung-min and Seo-yeon gets closer to each other. However, as the renovation ends, both Seung-min and Seo-yeon realizes that love has already grown (again) between them and they know that the situation wouldn't make it possible for them to be together. As the result, the house Seung-min re-designed becomes the last gift for Seo-yeon. It's the gift which signified Seung-min's love for Seo-yeon, though they will walk on different path. 

"If we can't be together, at least I have built you a home. Please, live well"

No, that's not the dialogue from the movie. I just try to express what Seung-min may feel. 

Flowers and Autumn

Both Seung-min and Seo-yeon met in autumn and their love grew in autumn (or was it summer?). The abandoned house Seo-yeon entered also represents something; it represents the beginning of the relationship between Seung-min and Seo-yeon. Seo-yeon cleaning the house may represent the process of starting a relationship. The house had been abandoned for years and when someone cleaned it, it means that the house would have a new 'life'. The flowers Seo-yeon planted in the house can also represent Seo-yeon's wish toward the relationship. If the flowers bloomed, she'd be happy; if the relationship went steady and they became couple, Seo-yeon would be happy. 

Autumn becomes a determiner for the flower. As winter comes closer, a question for the relationship comes. Will the flowers survive, or die? And it's sad that the flowers can't survive the winter, symbolizing the death of the relationship between Seung-min and Seo-yeon. Unlike the first snow depicting in Virgin Snow (starring Lee Jun-ki and Aoi Miyazaki), the first snow (in Architecture 101) that fell that day has become one thing that brought the flowers to their cold demise. The first day of winter denotes the end of their relationship. Comparing to what happens to couple Min and Nanae on the first day of winter in Virgin Snow, what happens to Seung-min and Seo-yeon is, indeed, ironic. 

Piano

Seo-yeon was a student of music department and in the movie, it is revealed that Seo-yeon has given up on music. Music used to be her dream but she has given up on it. In the middle of the story, Seo-yeon asks Seung-min to build a room where she can put a grand piano. Noting that Seo-yeon has given up on music, the fact that she wants a room for piano indicates her desire to re-catch her dream. In the last scene, a girl is seen practicing piano, being taught by Seo-yeon in her piano room. I personally think that it somehow shows that ever since Seung-min flies to US, Seo-yeon knows that life must go on and she has to move on, and piano becomes one of the ways to move on. 

Overall

Architecture 101 offers not only romance, but also depiction of architecture world. Lee Je-hoon performed well as a shy freshman, alongside Miss A member, Bae Suzy. Uhm Tae-woong and Han Ga-in also performed well in the movie. I enjoy breathtaking panorama shown in the movie, as well as classic 90's feelings showcased. Some items such as old computer, 90's music, and CD player bring me back to the 90's where CD player and computer operated with Windows 3.1 were in trend. At last, I can say that it's a good romance. If you wish to watch a romance with a non-happy ending and alternative resolution for the couple, then Architecture 101 would be recommended.