Italian Premiere | In Competition | Online
South Korea, 2024, 109’, Korean, Korean Sign Language
Directed by: Jo Seon-ho
Screenplay: Jo Seon-ho, Na Jae-won, Kwak Kyoung-yun
Cinematography (color): Gang Min-u
Production design: Kim Deok-soon
Editing: Kim Seon-min
Music: Cho Young-wuk
Producers: Kim Jae-joong, Yang Su-jeong
Cast: Hong Kyung (Yong-jun), Roh Yoon-seo (Yeo-reum/Summer), Kim Min-ju (Ga-eul/Fall), Jeong Yong-ju (Jae-jin), Jeong Hye-young (Yong-jun’s mother), Hyun Bong-sik (Yong-jun’s father)
Date of First Release in Territory: November 6th, 2024
Yong-jun is a recent university graduate in his 20s who hasn’t really figured out what to do with his life yet, but he keeps himself busy by running deliveries for his parents’ small lunchbox business. One day he is delivering lunchboxes to the local athletics center, where a group of deaf athletes are practicing in the pool. There he sees a woman named Yeo-reum, who is helping her younger sister Ga-eul train as a swimmer. Yong-jun is fascinated with Yeo-reum as soon as he sees her, and fortunately for him, he happens to be fluent in sign language. The next day, when Yeo-reum’s Vespa breaks down, he is there to lend her his, and soon a romance is blooming. Nonetheless, Yeo-reum is very clear about her priorities – her younger sister comes first. In fact, she has sacrificed more or less everything in her life for the sake of enabling her sister’s dream.
The Taiwanese film
Hear Me made a considerable impression in Korea when it was imported and released in 2010. Given the rage for remakes of all types in today’s Korean film industry, it’s perhaps not surprising that this story was chosen for adaptation. (Earlier this year, remakes of two more Taiwanese films – Jay Chou’s
Secret from 2007 and Giddens Ko’s
You Are the Apple of My Eye from 2011 – were released in Korean theaters.)
The plot of
Hear Me: Our Summer (the name Yeo-reum means “summer,” and Ga-eul means “fall”) doesn’t stray too far from the original, and director Jo Seon-ho effectively recreates the dizzy excitement of young romance that made the earlier film so memorable. In particular, the fact that these scenes all play out in sign language instead of spoken dialogue gives the film a distinct feel and rhythm.
None of the cast members are hearing impaired, so they all had to learn sign language to perform their roles. Yong-jun is played by Hong Kyung, who previously appeared in the films
Innocence and
Troll Factory, and whose career seems likely to keep going up. Roh Yoon-seo has also established herself as someone to watch, having appeared in the TV series
Our Blues,
Crash Course in Romance, and the Netflix film
20th Century Girl. They are in many ways an adorable couple, with smiles that light up the screen. The other supporting roles are well cast as well, including K-pop star-turned-actor Kim Min-ju in the role of Ga-eul.
There is a somewhat otherworldly quality to
Hear Me: Our Summer, which can feel at times like a fairy tale. For some viewers, the resolution might come across as too cute. But as a romance, it stands out for its appealing lead characters and its bittersweet depiction of young love.
GUEST:
JO Seon-ho, director
KIM Jae-joong, producer
Jo Seon-ho
Jo Seon-ho began his career in film doing screenplay revisions and working as an assistant director on the films
The Descendants of Hong Gil-dong (2009) and
Killer Toon (2013). He made his debut in 2017 with the time-loop drama
A Day, starring Kim Myung-min and Byun Yo-han. For his second feature
Hear Me: Our Summer, he was originally hired to revise the screenplay, and ultimately stayed on to direct.
FILMOGRAPHY
2017 – A Day
2024 – Hear Me: Our Summer