Just yesterday, I watched the famous 2001 Korean-Romantic-Comedy movie “My Sassy Girl” which featured famous Jeon Ji Hyun (Actress from “You Who Came from the Stars”) and Cha Tae Hyun (Popular K-movie & 2 Days 1 Night actor). 13 years ago, Jeon Ji Hyun was only 20 and Cha Tae Hyun was 25 and I was only 1X.

And this is what she looks like now. Oh gawd someone tell me how did 13 years fly by with her looking pretty much the same. For me, 13 years meant a transformation of height, weight, knowledge, education, graduation, starting life as a working adult and so on, yet her ageing seems like it paused at 20. However, I have to admit that there were some angles in the man from stars drama which revealed her age for a few seconds or so. But beyond that, she looks absolutely perfect for her age (33 in 2014).

I don’t know how on earth did this movie attract me so much that this is in fact my second time blogging about My Sassy Girl. The previous time I blogged about it was at my old blog back in 19 June 2005.

9 years ago, the scenes that were more memorable to me were:

(1) When she played Cannon in D on Piano in the school hall and he went on stage to give her the rose.

(2) and the part towards the end whereby the elderly man told her that the tree was struck down by lightning and that a man bought the exact same tree and planted it back at the exact same spot.

To date, Canon in D has been one of my favourite songs on the Piano and My Sassy Girl’s version of Canon in C is slightly simpler and different from the usual Pachelbell’s version. It was a simple yet touching scene.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_XiDPXM24I

9 years later, I asked myself what were the scenes which were more memorable for me.

(1) At the same iconic tree, but it was the day they wrote the letters for the time capsule and broke up. She had asked him to climb up to the mountain on the other side to check if he could hear what she was shouting. When he reached the other side, she started shouting apologies to him and it ended with “I thought I was different but I’m just a helpless girl”.

At this point in time, she was probably reflecting upon how unfair it was that she kept finding for the shadow of her ex in him. I guess, that was also the reason for the breakup. Until the day she can remove her ex out of her mind, only then she can truly love him. That was why she gave herself a deadline and planned on meeting him 2 years later. She felt that she was still living in the past and that the guy was a man from the future (*ahem resemblance to alien drama?)

(2) When they decide to leave on separate trains with the guy entering the train first, leaving the girl behind. Then, all of a sudden, the girl jumped on the train at the same moment whereby the guy rolled out of the train. No idea why this scene matter but it was a little similar to the My MVP Valentine (another of my all time favourite Taiwanese drama) breakup scene at the beach. I guess back then, this must have been a popular breakup technique.

 

“If we were destined to meet, I thought we would meet by chance somewhere.” 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCadYmp_UnQ

Alright back to the main agenda for this post – FILMING LOCATIONS FOR MY SASSY GIRL!

Memorable Place #1 Iconic Pine tree and location where they buried their time capsule – Time Capsule Park

Cr: http://oja796.blog.me/120212441763

Address: 518-23 Yeopgi Sonamu-gil, Sindong-eup, Jeongseon-gun, Gangwon-do
                강원 정선군 신동읍 엽기소나무길 518-23

Cr: http://managerhyung.blogspot.sg/2014/05/hotel-king-time-capsule-park.html

Directions from Seoul:
(By Car)  216km drive and 3 hours 30 mins away,
(By Bus) Dong Seoul Bus Terminal to Yeongwol Bus Terminal or Seokhang Stop, 50 mins taxi
(By Train) Mugunghwa Train From Cheongnyangni Station to Yeongwol/Yemi Station, 30 mins taxi

This is what it looks like now: The tree is barricaded and surrounded by 12 circles, represented by the zodiac sign. Each of the circle contains “lockers” whereby you can rent to keep a time capsule. The price ranges from 10,000 to 70,000W, depending on whether you will be keeping it for 100 days or 3 years (max). Interesting business idea.. Do you think there’s this market in your country?

Wow.. someone actually had a wedding at this tree… back in 2012.. 
Cr: http://www.kado.net/news/articleView.html?idxno=591382

Cr: http://jbh1986.tistory.com/44

FYI: In the movie, there was this scene whereby Jihyun asked Taehyun to climb the opposite mountain as she wanted to know if he could hear him on the other side.
The mountain that he climbed is called 오봉산 (Obong Mountain). It is not situated near the time capsule place, but at another place 10km away from Busan..

 

Cr: http://blog.naver.com/PostView.nhn?blogId=hwjkim&logNo=20004307410

Memorable Place #2 Amusement Park where the couple met the escaped soldier – Seoul Land 

Directions from Seoul:
(By Train) Line no.4 to Seoul Grand Park Station, Exit 2

This was the place whereby the guy wanted to bring jihyun to for her birthday. He paid 200,000W to his friend to create a special event for her birthday which includes the street lamp lighting up as they walk past and the light up of the merry go round plus fireworks.

The reality – their meeting with the escaped soldier resulted in many complications and he eventually slapped and whacked by the girl.

Despite the turn of events, this amusement park and their meeting with the solider definitely revealed certain secrets that jihyun had inside her as I feel that her suggestions to the heartbroken solider was probably words that she wanted to tell herself as well.. about how she should forget about her deceased ex bf..

FYI, this place is Korea’s first theme park and it is home to many flower festivals including tulips and rose. Definitely worth a visit!

Cr: http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/SI/SI_EN_3_4_2_3.jsp

Memorable Place #3 The lake where her ex bf probably drowned and where she pushed him into the water to ‘test’ the depth of the water at Misari Regatta Course 

Directions from Seoul:
(By Car) 40 mins by car, 32km from Seoul Station
(By Train) 1 hour 30 mins, take line no.2 to Jamsil Station, then transfer to bus 2000-2.

This place was previously built for rowing and canoeing competitions in the 1986 Asian Games and the 1988 Olympics. It seems like there’s a beautiful park, home to many activities including cycling, basketball or even a perfect backdrop for a picnic.

Other places in the movie worth mentioning:

(4) Yonsei University was the filming location whereby Jihyun waited outside Taehyun’s university, then complained about her high heels and forced taehyun to change shoes with her. Taehyun ended up wearing her high heels and running all over in the heels….

Reply 1994 and Iris also used Yonsei University as its filming site and you can tell from the iconic stone building in the backdrop below which was built back in 1956..

Cr: http://dev.seoulstory.org/main/album/0/1111

(5) 일영역 (ilyeong) Train Station where they broke up after putting their letters in the time capsule.
Apparently, this Station (with history dating back to 1960s) is no longer in operation.

Cr: https://mirror.enha.kr/wiki/%EC%9D%BC%EC%98%81%EC%97%AD

Cr: http://filmkorea.or.kr/search/viewer_print.asp?view=print&grp=1&dir=&gotopage=&lid=14152&cid=7567

(6) Bupyeong Train Station – the place where the couple first met after the vomiting incident.

(7) Incheon Station (the last stop of the blue line) – this scene happened when taehyun wanted to take revenge by getting drunk on the train, hoping that jihyun will come to save him. However, he got robbed and became penniless and even ended up at the police station..

Compare the two pictures and it seems like things pretty much look the same in terms of the building paint and the windows.. hmm. 13 years..

Cr: http://itour.visitincheon.org/utourpia/theme/01_01/view.jsp?tour_id=412&c_page=1&class_id=F&keyfield=&keyword=&catagory=null&sort=null&sort_seq=null

Jihyun’s university hall piano performance was recorded in Cheongju University 청주대학교

Spot the similarities? I can’t be 100% sure but I think so..

There are so many themes in this movie which I hope I will be able to do a thorough analysis on in the near future. It’s one movie which lingers in my mind even after so long . Do watch it if you have some spare time (2 hours). It is available on YouTube if you know what to type in the search box.

Like this entry and you would like me to do some research on other filming locations?

Check out my gig at fiverr: http://www.fiverr.com/honeystars/answer-your-questions-about-korea-travel-and-kpop?funnel=201409041549325088196920

🙂