“P.S. I Love You” vs. “The Letter”
by javabeans
I know I cannot be the only person to have noticed the similarities.
When I first started seeing ads for the new Hilary Swank movie P.S. I Love You, I was struck with the storyline and figured it must be another case, as with Il Mare and My Sassy Girl, of Hollywood adapting a popular, well-received Korean film. Because the story of P.S. I Love You — what I can glean from commercials and online searches, that is — seems almost a direct retelling of the 1997 Korean film The Letter, starring one of the top Korean actresses of all time, Choi Jin Shil, and an actor I’ve only JUST realized is Park Shin Yang.
In fact, it was so similar that I was totally sure it was a remake — but looking online reveals no connection. The Hollywood movie is apparently based on a 2004 novel of the same name, written by first-time novelist Cecelia Ahern, according to Wikipedia.
Huh. I suppose it could be a case of two people coming up with the same idea independently, but it’s an awfully big coincidence.
SONG OF THE DAY
Kim Gun Mo – “이별없는 사랑” (A love without farewell). I’ve just rediscovered all my old Kim Gun Mo albums (thanks to holidays spent back at the family home), and remembered why he was one of the few pop singer-songwriters who’s lasted through the ever-changing kpop scene. You can’t really call him “kpop” although he is Korean and writes/sings pop music in the strict sense of the term. [ zShare download ]
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I remember seeing The Letter in a movie theater in L.A. — a rare occurrence, that, since ten years ago Korean films weren’t really a blip on the international cinema scene. But this was Koreatown, and The Letter was enough of a hit in Korea that a theater in L.A. ran the film — with English subtitles! — in a limited run wherein (practically) everyone I knew went to see it.
I wasn’t a big Korean film fan then, and not even really a kdrama fan, although I had seen the lead actress, Choi Jin Shil, in THE original trendy drama, Jealousy, when it kicked off the romantic-comedy drama craze in 1992.
The Letter was billed as a sad movie, which is also something I vigorously avoid, but for some reason it seems more uplifting than tragic. I cried buckets in the movie — I am not exaggerating because I distinctly remember noting this at the time — and started weeping about halfway through the film and DID NOT STOP. But it was the kind of crying you enjoy indulging in, not the sadomasochistic or self-pitying kind. I heard that Choi Jin Shil cried so much while filming the movie that she passed out from dehydration.
Anyway. This is what I remember of the film — I’ve only seen it once, but I have a pretty good memory for useless details and this film sticks in my memory:
THE GENERAL PLOT (Non-spoilery)
Choi Jin Shil and Park Shin Yang are a happily, newly married couple with the whole world in front of them, until they discover that Park Shin Yang is dying of cancer. He passes away early on in the film, and leaves behind his grieving widow, who has to now move on alone. One day she gets a letter — from her husband. She can’t figure out where it came from and it doesn’t SEEM to be a mistake. As in, it’s not a long-lost letter; it’s addressed to her as though he’s speaking to her in the present.
She continues to get letter after letter, which of course is welcome and yet entirely confounding. Are they fake? Is it from a ghost? How is he sending her these messages now? And let’s just say by the end she gains a measure of peace and it’s all heartwarming and uplifting even with all the sad mixed in.
THE SPOILERY VERSION
Since it’s been such a while since I’ve seen the film, I can only recall certain parts — but they’re such powerful parts. Park Shin Yang is completely touching as the slowly deteriorating husband who clings to his positive side despite the fact that his body is breaking down, and Choi Jin Shil is always wonderful.
No, there’s no supernatural flibberty-gibberty going on, nor is there some freaky time-space warp issue. The truth is quite simple, actually, but what makes the film work isn’t its premise so much as it is watching how these two people act their way through it. Eventually, we find out the source of the letters — and it’s really the plainest, most logical answer: The husband had prepared them prior to his death, without his wife’s knowledge, and gave instructions for them to be sent to her after his passing in order to help ease her grief.
There’s a particularly lovely part, one of those scenes you first see from one side, and then from the other, and it’s when you see the full picture that the emotion hits you full-force. And it’s a doozy. Just thinking of it even now brings tears to my eyes. Early on in the film, Wifey is taking care of her ailing husband, who’s very sick from chemo but not yet at death’s door, when she goes out to run some errands or some such thing. She’s been worn down from taking care of her sick husband, and he’s been irritable lately, so although they love each other, affection hasn’t been their priority in recent days.
So on a whim, she stops by a pay phone to call home, only the answering machine picks up. She leaves her message for her husband to hear later, saying, “I wanted to tell you this now, because I haven’t said it lately. I love you.”
Then, after he dies and sends her letters and she finds out that he’d written the letters prior to his death, she receives a final message from him. The fact that it’s the last letter she’ll be receiving is particularly moving even if not for the message itself, which comes this time in the form of a video. Wifey pops in the tape to see that it’s her husband, sometime during his chemotherapy stages, talking into the camera. But he’s interrupted by a phone call — and since he’s in the middle of recording, he decides not to pick up, and waits for the answering machine to finish its message. And when he hears his wife’s voice, and the message that she leaves, OH GOOD LORDY the expression on Park Shin Yang’s face as he completely breaks down… wow. The movie’s worth it just for that scene, y’all. Now that I’ve spoiled it for you, heh.
END OF SPOILERYNESS
I’ll say right now that I think the Hilary Swank version is gonna suck. I have nothing to base that assertion upon except for the fact that it looks unbearably cheesy, like a Nicholas Sparks novel gone (even more) self-indulgently maudlin.
Even if P.S. I Love You doesn’t bear any official relation to The Letter, it still seems to have produced that weirdness that happened when Il Mare was bastardized into its Hollywoodified Sandra-Keanu version in The Lake House. Il Mare — despite the seeming outrageousness of its premise (two people send each other letters through a maaagical mailbox despite living two years apart) — worked because of the small moments, the thin bond that sprung up between Jeon Ji Hyun’s and Lee Jung Jae’s characters and which slowly, organically, quietly grew into something substantial. That movie lives and breathes in its silences, its long pauses — which is why the glossier, melodramatic-er Lake House does nothing for me. Except perhaps cause my eyeballs to roll upward of their own accord. I can’t help it. It’s snark reflex.
Okay, so it’s probably too early to be consigning P.S. I Love You to the same fate (is it, though?), but who cares, I’ll do it anyway. Even if I’d seen the marketing blitz for P.S. with no knowledge of The Letter, I’d write it off as squishy oversentimentalized sappiness that turns me off despite the fact that I’m the perfect target audience: I have a built-in high-shmaltz tolerance! I love silly teen movies and predictable romantic comedies! But with this kind of movie, I’m sick of the overwrought-ness of it all. Everything just seems too TOO. Too much drama, too much angst, too much wonder, just too much. Hollywood needs to calm the fuck DOWN and let their movies breathe.
Tags: Choi Jin-shil, Park Shin-yang, remakes
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1 Candy
December 5, 2007 at 4:54 PM
For reals, I didn't know that. Thanks Javabeans for that info. The guy from The Letter looks awfully alot like the guy from the korean drama Lovers in Paris. So, do you think P.S. I love You is worth watching? Maybe I should watch The Letter first. Never heard of it before. But I saw this k-movie called A Moment To Remember which is a sad story too but instead of the lead guy, it's the lead girl who dies.
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noctifa
December 17, 2010 at 8:00 AM
u should watch the letter 1st i really love that movie really great and dont worry the end is not so sad
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2 deeta
December 5, 2007 at 5:07 PM
Wow, the coincidence is amazing. I read the book a while ago, and hated it with passion. REEEEELLLLLIII hated the story telling, the seemingly sappy/superficial wifey, etc etc. But according to your retelling of the PSY's movie, the similarities is wow.
I guess it might just be possible that Cecelia Ahern (who I think is the producer of Samantha Who, lol) got her 'ideas' from the movie. Dunno. All I remember was that I pretty much flipped and scanned through the last parts of the book cause I got irritated by how CA presented Holly.
Do you have any ideas where The Letter might still be available?
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mumnzuuc
July 24, 2011 at 3:48 AM
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3 docmitasha
December 5, 2007 at 5:20 PM
Wow. I was just thinking the story was interesting when I saw the preview and sounds familiar, but I'm not a Hilary Swank fan so was not planning to check it out. But I definitely have to watch The Letter now. I think I must have come across the synopsis sometime back thus the familiarity. PSY is a fine, fine, actor, and I can just imagine how great he was in that role. He's one of my favorite actors, can't believe I missed watching this one. Damn, I hope Hollywood doesn't mess this up, though just like I didn't bother to watch The LakeHouse so Il Mare wouldn't get ruined for me, I'll probably skip this too.
Also, I can't believe its a coincidence, I bet they felt "inspired" and not ethical enough to credit it where it belongs. Anyhow, like you said, it'll probably be TOO much and lose all its poignancy and beauty, which from what you've said the story should portray. Just the story alone sounds so beautiful, and though I may be biased, I feel such stories are handled best and most wonderfully by Korean filmmakers. Hollywood just can't cut it, can't let the moments be, can't let the silence speak. But Korean film-makers make it a piece of art.
Thanks! :)
*goes to hunt for the letter*
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4 Kiongna
December 5, 2007 at 5:26 PM
The Letter - Yes, it is our Oppa Park Shin Yang and Candy it is the same Ki Jo from Lovers in Paris.
The Letter, The Promise and Indian Summer are my most favourite Park Shin Yang movies, yes I am a Park Shin Yang fan. Candy, you will find a few similar trademarks for PSY from The Letter in Lovers in Paris - like taking the handkerchief to dust the seating place of his love interest .....
PSY has the uncanny ability to tap to his most inner emotions and portray them natuarally and passionately. Below an excerpt of THE LETTER from his website: parkshinyang.com - CAUTION some spoilers...
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With the tag line, “a tear-jerking melodrama”, the film pulled a record-breaking 770-thousand viewers in 1997. Park Shin-yang plays a man working in an arboretum as a tree specialist who bumps into a Korean academic at a train station. She drops her wallet while running to catch a train and, when he retrieves it for her, it leads to the start of a romantic love affair. Willing to do anything for his love, he promises to be with her forever. But shortly after they marry, he is diagnosed with a fatal disease and dies, leaving his love on her own. But letters start arriving from her lover just as she starts to think there is no point to life without her husband.
Park Shin-yang encapsulated the endless gentleness and purity of one man’s love in this film that had audiences reaching for boxes of tissues. The movie became famous in Korea for a sentimental scene focusing on the dying husband’s video-taped message to his wife in which the character reads a poem. Park Shin-yang received the Popularity Award at the 34th Baek-Sang (White Elephant) Art Award and the Best New Male Actor Award at the 18th Film Critics Award among others, reserving him a spot among the nation’s best-loved actors.
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The Lakehouse was so Hollywoody and held no magic whatsover from the original Il Mare - and yeah like Javabeans said, "That movie lives and breathes in its silences, its long pauses..." Oh Javabeans, you hit it right on the nose...
Been a while this old PSY fan - used to be a roaring fanatical PSY fan....thanks for relivin my memories of this wonderful movie THE LETTER and my feelings for this brilliant actor....Hugs, E
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5 rocketfuel
December 5, 2007 at 5:39 PM
I remember The Letter...I was forced to watch it by my mom in this one run down theater in the ghettos of Los Angeles. Everyone was crying...including me...so basically I was forced to be an ahjumma. damn you mom!
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6 docmitasha
December 5, 2007 at 5:41 PM
Can't seem to find it anywhere :( Does anyone know if its available anywhere online to watch or order (couldn't find it on YesAsia :( )? The more I read about it the more I want to watch it!
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7 Javabeans
December 5, 2007 at 5:44 PM
rocketfuel, who knows, maybe we were in the same screening. lol. i was "forced" to go with my parents as well -- a rare bonding experience since it was the practically the only korean drama or film that came subtitled back then.
docmitasha, i'm not sure, i'm scouring clubboxes right now to see which one has it. someone MUST have it -- the movie was a big deal!
and yeah, i find myself exceedingly skeptical that PS I Love You had absolutely no knowledge or influence from The Letter -- i mean, just look at those side-by-side posters! similar pose, similar framing, similar use of font color and title and photo... you can't say THAT was coincidence too.
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8 Sephia
December 5, 2007 at 5:53 PM
Wow. I'm off to hunt "The Letter" right now!!!
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9 SM
December 5, 2007 at 6:02 PM
Yeah, I read the P/s: I love you book before as my friend recommended it to me. As soon as I started to read it, I recoginised there were a lot of coincidently similarities between the book and "The letter" (I just knew the splot of the movie from the news and havent got chance to watch yet).
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10 rocketfuel
December 5, 2007 at 6:03 PM
javabeans, was it at the Gardena theatre?
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11 tealeaf
December 5, 2007 at 6:04 PM
Rumour has it that Cecelia Ahern (a 20-something first time novelist) wrote the novel over a span of 3 months. I believe P.S. I Love You was published in 2001. I'm not a fan of chick-lit authors so can't pass judgment. But i agree, it's an interesting coincidence.
BTW, with the recent Hollywood's acquisition of Korea's movies and drama copyrights, i think we should brace ourselves for more adaptations. I hate to be the bearer of bad news but apparently, the first American remake of a classic K-drama is slated to be released some time in 2008. It's the remake of My Sassy Girl! Your thoughts, javabeans?
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12 docmitasha
December 5, 2007 at 6:05 PM
apparently a lot of people have been looking for it for a long time. Found it on AsianDBs without subtitles, and a used VHS on top of that. I guess because its such an old movie the new generation of rippers/uploaders haven't bothered :( I really wish atleast YesAsia carried it! will keep looking though.
Shame that there's no credit given anywhere where its due here. Even if both were based on Ahern's story, its so obvious that even the posters are inspired by The Letter. Atleast a previous adaptation should be acknowledged. How infuriating.
Edit: Heard abt My Sassy Girl remake...not looking forward to it!
'k, am going to stop haunting your blog and stop procrastinating. Ah damn lab reports.
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13 djeedjes
December 5, 2007 at 6:07 PM
Hollywood is running out of ideas nowadays. They were digging old or new ASIAN movies to be remade. And the worst thing, they wanted to hide the fact ( the remake thing ).
I avoid to watch any remake of Asian movies, I like the original better.
One movie I was trying so hard not to watch is "The Departed" - remake of Hong Kong flick "Infernal Affair" - because of course I can't imagine Leonardo Di Caprio & Matt Damon could ever replaced Andy Lau ( my hero ) and Tony Leung.. AND I hate with passion when Leo was nominated in Oscar!
Come on America! Admit that Asian movies are good!! :P
I never want to see "The Lake House", I promoted "Il Mare" to anybody who said the Hollywood's take is better. I guess they just want to see Sandra and Keanu..:)
About "My Sassy Girl" remake, I also heard the rumor. America wants to remake "My Wife is A Gangster" too, rite? AND they want to replace Shim Eun Kyung with Queen Latifah?? OMFG. What the hell the producers were thinking?
I read lots of chick lites, but somehow I never want to read "P.S I Love You", even the book is available in my language.
@ Sephia : maybe I could find "The Letter" for you? *wink* You know I am good at this...:P
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14 Javabeans
December 5, 2007 at 6:15 PM
hmm, people are asking (unsuccessfully) where to find The Letter on Korean sites, too. it's gotta be SOMEwhere...
rocketfuel, they showed it in Gardena? I saw it in some theater in K-town. don't remember which one it was though.
I think My Sassy Girl: The Hollywood Version is gonna suck too. I don't have high expectations at all. And hey, i have as much residual Sandra-Keanu love left over from Speed (so mindlessly entertaining!) but seeing them together in Lake House is just so cringingly awkward. Now, the remake of Tale of Two Sisters -- THAT, I'm thinking, might actually end up being interesting. I doubt it'll be as good as the original, but it might not entirely blow.
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15 Philippa
December 5, 2007 at 6:15 PM
I don't like the Korean version of Il Mare, even though it's like originally Korean and all, I like the American Verson better... lol. I LOVE Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves! They mesh well toghther! lmao.
Thanks.
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16 Ter
December 5, 2007 at 6:20 PM
Hhahahahahha, the post completely descended into rant mode by the end, and I loved every word of it XD. Made me laugh.Thanks javabeans. And on the other hand, your description of that one scene alone made me tear up, so I'm thinking I may just die if I watch it for reals.
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17 rach
December 5, 2007 at 6:25 PM
the only reason i'd see p.s. i love you is because of Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Gerard Butler (the accent!)
pure eye candy!
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18 kotatsulove
December 5, 2007 at 6:55 PM
jeez, there are a lot of American remakes of korean films. there's gonna be a remake of A Tale of Two Sisters?! i don't know if i should be excited or not...
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19 Kristen
December 5, 2007 at 6:58 PM
I think the way for a Korean-to-American movie would work best would to cast "nobodies" for the leads. But there you go, it wouldn't even work that way because no one would watch. I just don't like a lot of movies for that reason: they pick the big names, and they just don't fit, or overwhelm the roles.
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20 einah08
December 5, 2007 at 7:01 PM
i've already read P.S. I Love You, and I'm actually looking forward to its movie version.. and yeah, what a similarity with The Letter.. thanks for this information javabeans..
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21 huh?
December 5, 2007 at 7:07 PM
I read Rosie Dunne by Cecila Ahern and enjoyed it so much that I remember waiting for "P.S. I Love You" to be published.....I thought it was really sweet and original....now you've gone and spoiled it for me...it wasn't original at all =( However, on the brightside....I will be looking for "The Letter."
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22 Marzy
December 5, 2007 at 7:08 PM
i loved the PS i love u book btw. it had me in tears. i do see the similarities. but wow. i really enjoyed the read.. wow.. :D thanks for the info though!
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23 Sherry
December 5, 2007 at 7:38 PM
I would also love to find The Letter with English subtitles. *sigh*
I read P.S. I Love You and I thought it was terrible. It was so badly written and the main character got really annoying by the end of it.
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cristina
January 5, 2015 at 1:07 PM
Hi! Where didi you see The letter? Did you watche online or did you buy it?
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24 Cat
December 5, 2007 at 8:00 PM
It's great that you wrote this entry. A few years ago I watched a Thai film also called "The Letter" and when I kept seeing commercials for P.S. I Love You, I kept thinking about how similar it is! Now I think if anything the Thai movie ripped off the Korean version and that is quite a revelation because I also cried buckets for that movie. Another interesting movie that has a similar concept to a Korean movie ("Jenny, Juno") would be Juno. When I saw the commercial, I immediately searched online to see if it was a remake, but the writer said it's pure coincidence, etc etc.
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25 Giddygirl108
December 5, 2007 at 8:07 PM
I haven't seen "The Letter" yet but just reading your spoiler-bit about it brought tears to my eyes already.
Park Shin Yang is great :)
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