Running away from her abusive job, Jung Hwa finds solace in hanging out with Jang who is a blind door man and parking lot attendant. In dire need to connect, Jang tells Jung stories about his life until the day she decides to leave. Since Jang has anger issues, he tries every possible thing to redeem himself for his past life of being an aggressive martial artist. However, unlike most people, Jang struggles to balance working, Jung and trying to be a jack of all trades. He goes to great lengths with his self sabotage until the day he realizes he can’t let go of Jung so easily.
His involvement in this criminal circuit is however bound to go wrong and almost denies them of their happy ending.
As for his script, Song used elements from Chaplin’s “City Lights” where the protagonist is a tramp that falls in love with a blind girl, adjusting the plot to modern day. Scenarist Song’s work in art house pictures is evident in the way he develops his plot. The background of the protagonists is gradually presented and the setting of the boxing world and Jang’s history serve as its additional burden. Even if the story many seem a-bits soft on creative view but there is lot stuff in it to make stimulating for viewers.
In cinematic terms, the themes of optimism and pessimism are not only discussed but also apparent when sound is combined with visuals. Whenever there are mellow, loving and joyous moments between Jang and Jung-hwa, the video is nearly overexposed, while the remaining portions which mostly occur in night time, are relatively darker. A very straightforward example is Jang attempting to renovate Jung-hwa’s place that they recently shifted into, in order to cater to Jung-hwa’s needs. To reflect on (her) new lifestyle he places one of the windows in a position to be able to get more sunlight. Even the soundscape balances the upbeat songs with those that are dark so as to emphasize the various moods even more profoundly.
Where other filmmakers might have faltered in the movie, Song’s innate filmmaking skills stood out in the fight scene. The colour scheme in this particular scene is set up in high contrast lighting which in my opinion is a completely different aesthetic from the rest of the movie. This scene on the other hand is quick and quite ruthless if I do say so myself. While the structured plotline of Always doesn’t warrant such a scene, it raises a more philosophical question in that whether or not the movie needed such a grand conclusion.
Towards the last portion of the movie, the narrative does become a bit far fetched. Up until this portion the lead actors had such subtle yet believable delivery but here it takes a slight divergence from reality. Perhaps the film would have made a more profound impact if it ended on a high note an on a rather sensitive subject matter and isn’t that what the audience wanted? Regardless, Song’s first main stream movie did need that somewhat happy ending because it only makes the movie more appealing to a larger audience. And with the change the movie high five different versions of the movie being remade i.e. a Japanese, Turkish and Filipino version.
Consequently, “Always” is more daring and sinister not only than Chaplin’s movie but also in comparison to US modern romantic drama’s. In the absence of Song’s direction of the story as well as the film, it would have turned out to be too pretentious and overly sweet to be believable.
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