[REVIEW] Film "White Night"

While the melody of Tchaikovsky's "The Swan Lake" plays sorrowfully in the background, a woman makes love lying on a pure white bed while a man is choking on someone's neck in a dark room in the basement. Although they are distinctively different from each other, the history of their relationship traces back to 14 years ago.

The press conference for film "White Night" (directed by Park Shin-woo), based on Keigo Higashino's best-selling mystery novel ("Byakuyako" in Japanese), was held at Wangshimni CGV on November 10. Due to a horrible incident 14 years ago, Mi-ho (played by Son Ye-jin) and Yo-han (Ko Soo) can never walk outside under the sunlight together but maintain their relationship as lovers. Everytime they commit murder, it is "for our brighter futures", or so they call it. Such murder is something that Dong-soo (Han Suk-kyu), the police officer needs to stop but in the light of the couple, it is a form of love. The TV adaptation of "Byakuyako", starring Asaye Haruka and Yamada Takayuki was a hit in Japan but how much of an appeal will the film adaption, set for release on November 19, have in Korea with its cast Son and Ko?

There exist an array of changes in the movie "White Night" compared to the original novel. The construction building where the young couple experienced the terrible incident is converted into an old vessel in the film. And moreover, Dong-soo undergoes more tragedies than just losing a close colleague. Yet, the film's difference from the original novel or the Japanese TV series is not in such mere changes. While the couple take a step back to protect their love after committing horrible crimes in the book, in the film they have been transformed into scary murderers aiming for a 'mission cleared'. Dashing down dark streets late at night or vomiting is not enough to portray Yohan's deeply rooted guilt. And scenes showing Mi-ho spending time at a cafe silently sipping on tea or her planning tiny conspiracies does not do enough to reveal her inner world.

Director Park has managed to digress so far from his original aim to "come up with a unique movie from a police officer's perspective" that he has created a movie which is neither a melodrama or a mystery but closer to a 'one-man detective story'. As a result, the film "White Night" has simply ended up as another good example that proving how difficult it is for a film to leave a much more significant impact on the viewers than its already-famous original work.

Reporter : Lee Ji-Hye seven@10asia.co.kr
Photographer : Lee Jin-hyuk eleven@10asia.co.kr
Editor: Linda Kim lindakim@asiae.co.kr