A Review of <500 days of Summer> (Additional Review)

Samuel Seung Min Kim

A little front note: 

Woah. I just can't believe I've had that much thoughts running through my mind for the last 1 hour and a half while I was watching this movie called <500 Days of Summer.> I know that I haven't revised the review of The Body and mid term is like 2 days from now, but no. I have to write this. 

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     So to start with, I have never had a girlfriend in my life. Koreans call that motae solo (which means "a person born to be a solo"), and I personally do not know why I happened to have no girlfriends throughout my 17 years of life. It's probably because dating amongst students is considered as a cultural taboo in South Korea. But whatever. The point is that I'm a person without any experience as a lover.

     And Tom in this movie is just like me. He has never had a girlfriend ever in his life, and he believes in "love at first sight." And on this day, Tom sees a girl, and instantly knows that she is the love of his life. Her name is Summer.

     So the movie goes. The director chose a rather special way of proceeding the movie plot, which is to divide the movie into two based on chronological order. The first part is from day 1 to 250, and the other is from day 250 to about 440. The director freely moves from the first part to the second part, showing scenes in between.

      As I said right at the beginning of this journal, I am a motae solo. That means that I actually have no idea about how real dates happen or what lovers really do. But one thing sure is that all those things that Summer and Tom did are not the type of things what just "friends" would do. I basically know all this because I have a plenty of girl "friends."

      Yet, Summer doesn't seem to consider all these actions to be a part of "loving" sentiment. No. Due to her parents' divorce, she just don't believe in the existence of love. Tom is merely a mean that Summer fully utilizes to satisfy her desires.

       But that's not something going over Tom's mind. He is also a motae solo (just like me), and he just crazily believes that Summer is the love of his life.

       And all that fantasy just breaks as Tom sees Summer wearing that marriage ring from a different dude in a party. Tom just go nuts, and he runs away from Summer's house.

       The following days of Tom is covered in despair. He doesn't go to his company, and his daily rhythm just breaks. And in his first day going to the greeting cards company after 3 consecutive days of unprecedented absence, he announces that he quits. He screams out loud: "All these words written in these greeting cards, you know what? They're bullshit. These are words that don't mean anything. Like love."

       And he is right. He is a motae solo and he has absolutely NO idea about what love is, but he has been just babbling on about love and faith and all that in these greeting cards. The things that he just don't believe in.

       So Tom comes home, and starts to think. What is it, then, that makes his heart beat? It is architecture. Then he starts to go crazy about architecture. About drawing things. Love, faith, all those things- they have barely any meaning to him. And his relationship, his belief about love is all finished as he thinks about all those bad things that happened between him and Summer.

       And almost at the end of this movie, Tom meets Summer. And Summer tells him. He was right. Right about all that love at first sight thing. Summer just woke up one day, and realized that she was in love with this man. A kind of feeling that she never felt with Tom. Tom was right, but he just wasn't right about the person. Summer wasn't supposed to be his love at first sight.

       Tom's head is all complicated now. And with all this thought, he goes to the interview that he has with an architecture group. There, he meets a lady. And as Tom talks to the lady, he realizes that she shares the most favorite place with him. Tom thinks, whatever. But as he is just about to disappear from that lady's sight, he thinks. This could be his love of his life. This could be his fate. And when he asks the lady's name. His heart stops beating. AUTUMN.

        Like I said. I am a motae solo. I have never had a love-at-first-sight. To be frank, I didn't believe in such childish things before. I believed that such beliefs were childish.

        But now, I find my beliefs changed. Love-of-my-life actually exists. It's just that I am not observant enough, or my time of loving is yet to come.

        Some might say that such beliefs are too childish. Too fable-like. Too impractical. They might ask me, how do you know that someone is your true love? They might say, stop being too melodramatic. That is not how love rolls.

         But I ask them: Who are YOU to decide? How can you be so sure that such things like love at first sight don't exist? What makes you to be so materialistic in viewing love?

        And how I am supposed to know my love-of-my-life? Honestly, I am not sure. Just like Summer did in the movie. Maybe I will wake up in the morning and realize that I'm in true love with someone. Maybe that would be how I would find my fate.

        Korean society is very materialistic. Everything's about money and success. And such belief has also infected the concept of love, and many people in this country believe that love is something that can be used as a tool to achieve success. And foolishly, I was also drenched in such thoughts, too. 

      But now I find myself hating thoughts. Life is not that dry and acrid. God didn't intend to make our life to be like that. Thanks, <500 Days of Summer>.