기쁜 우리 젊은 날 (Our Joyful Young Days). 1987. South Korea. Directed by Bae Chang-ho. With Ahn Sung-ki, Hwang Shin-hye, Choi Bool-am. In Korean; English subtitles. 118 min.
Bae Chang-ho’s bittersweet romance traces the ill-fated love between Young-min (Ahn Sung-ki), a shy business student, and Hye-rin (Hwang Shin-hye), an ambitious actress he admires from afar. Young-min sends anonymous flowers to every performance, but Hye-rin marries a gynecologist and moves to New York before he can confess his feelings. Years later, a chance subway encounter in Seoul reunites them—she is divorced, he remains devoted—but their belated happiness proves tragically short-lived. Cowritten with Lee Myung-se, the film demonstrates Bae’s gift for extracting emotionally complex performances from his leads, with Ahn’s restrained intensity perfectly counterpointing Hwang’s luminous presence. Cinematographer You Yong-kil’s fluid camera work and the film’s lush romantic aesthetic represent a departure from Bae’s earlier social realism, yet the underlying melancholy—the sense of lives shaped by missed chances and South Korea’s rapid modernization—remains characteristically his own. Selected by director Hwang Dong-hyuk.