‘Be with You’ is a 2018 Korean romance film remake of the 2004 Japanese movie with the same title. Directed by Lee Jang-hoon and starring So Ji-Sub and Son Ye-jin, this movie is based on the book by the japanese author Takuji Ichakawa.
The Rainy Season
Soo-ah (Son Ye-jin) before passing away makes a fantastical promise to her husband (So Ji-sub) and her son. She would return home the next year when the rainy season started.
Struggling with his single parenthood, trying to be supportive for his son while also working and dealing with his illness, Woo-jin (Ji-sub) lives the day to day missing his beloved wife, trying his best to be strong for his son, working hard and coping with life.
Ji-Ho (Kim Ji-hwan) misses his mother and wishes the rainy season to come fast so he can be with his mother once again.
The rainy season starts and Woo-jin and Ji-Ho go to Soo-ah’s grave to bring flowers, however, on the way back they find a woman sitting inside an abandoned train tunnel and it turns out to be Soo-ah who is back to fulfil her promise.
However, Soo-ah doesn’t remember how she got there and has no recollection of her marrying Woo-jin and having Ji-Ho, yet, she decides to go along with them to the house that once was their home.
While staying with them and adapting to her newly found mother role, Soo-ah embraces her newly found motherhood and gives her all in her relationship with Ji-Ho. Woo-jin from his side candidly remembers how they both met each other and fell in love, which turned out to be since they were in secondary school.
Secondary Woo-jin as the new transfer student finds himself in a new scenario where he tries to fit in. He soon finds his best friend Hog-goo (Go Chang-seok) and develops a massive crush on young Soo-ah, but he is too clumsy and shy to tell her.
Throughout his secondary school he clumsily tries to express his feelings but fails every single time, it’s not until they are young adults that he decides to call her with his best friend’s help, and finally manages to ask her out.
Future, Past and Present
‘Be with You’ develops with its characters, enjoying the time they have left with each other, Soo-ah teaches Ji-Ho how to be a more independent little boy, and gets closer to Woo-jin. In doing so, he remembers how far they have come together and how their relationship almost didn’t happen after he got depressed following his diagnosis of a rare and permanent disease he has to live with for the rest of his life.
The rainy season is nearly over and both Woo-jin and Ji-Ho struggle with the reality of having to say goodbye to a person they deeply love. The separation is imminent and once the rainy season finishes we see Ji-Ho saying goodbye to his mother under the abandoned train bridge, and Woo-jin barely makes it after fainting due to his illness.
Father and son say goodbye to Soo-ah, with candid words and overwhelming feeling, closing a chapter of deep yearning for a loved one, but opening a new one where memories are treasured more than anything else.
In the home, Woo-jin finds a key Soo-ah left for her studio in his medicine bag, he goes in and finds her diary which she placed for him to read.
He reads it and find out about Soo-ah’s car accident which had her in coma for month in the past after they broke-up, in her diary she describes how she had a vivid dream in which she showed up one day under an abandoned train bridge and meets her son Ji-Ho and him in the future at the beginning of the rainy season.
Woo-jin finds out that she also had a crush on him since secondary school but wasn’t brave enough to say it out loud, how happy she was when they reconnected and the doubts she had after waking up from her coma. She wasn’t sure whether to find him and die young or not to meet him and continue what she considered a happy life.
She decided to go on with destiny and loved both father and son with the few years she had with them, not regretting a single second of her life.
This movie ends up with a Woo-jin closing the diary and preparing it as a present for his now 20-year old son Ji-ho, who grew up to be a great man.
Final Thoughts
‘Be with You’ felt like a slice of life movie. There wasn’t a villain other than time and destiny, and characters with a very wholesome development and growth.
The flashback of their youth and how they treasured those memories was candid and heartfelt, and left a beautiful message about treasuring precious moments while you can.
I would highly recommend this movie to anyone wanting to watch something easy and warm. You can check the trailer below.
