Hear Me: Our Summer

Feel-good romance lacks distinctive voice and a real heart

I don't have much to say about this film except that it's cute, adorable and wholesome. Conversations are mostly backed up with whimsical music. I don't have a problem with this as the dialogues felt authentic and genuine at first. However, by the time we arrived in the second half the story became dragged and lacked the specifities I was hoping for.

The shots and cinematography could have been more creative to make it memorable. The story does not try to be groundbreaking either. This is just supposed to be a feel-good movie although I would have loved if there were more touching moments to evoke emotions considering the story revolves around deaf people.

The story starts with Yong Jun unsure of what he wants to do in life. He's surrounded with philosophy books but he doesn't know what job to apply for. By the time we get to the end, nothing has changed. He's the main character but we didn't get to know much about his thoughts and background except that he instantly fell for Yeo Reum when he saw her in the swimming pool. This is the moment where the puppy love story starts to unfold. The film also noticeably shifts it focus to Yeo Reum's point of view after this part. More or less, Yeo Reum is a more developed character than Yong Jun. We digged into Yeo Reum's background and personality but only to a certain extent and here is where my main issue lies. Her character lacks a distinctive voice and is not fleshed out as I want her to be.

The storyline is fairly simple and is quite the epitome of young love. Although, one would really expect that the film could have had more earnest and compelling scenes just to fully give us that warm, fuzzy feeling inside.

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has its cute moments, but offers nothing new

I haven't watched the original film they based this on, but it seems to have a very simple plot. I feel like stories like these would have been more charming in the early 2000s, but all of it now is predictable. It didn't have anything particularly unexpected that set it apart from other romance films already put out. What could have made it better for me was if they showed more of the characters' nuances and thoughts.. and fleshed out their relationships. What made the ML truly care about the FL so much? What connection did they build from those surface level interactions? I like the actors in this film, but I couldn't really root for their characters because we're not given a chance to understand their intentions.. they didn't even know much about each other?

Visually, this film is so pretty! I wanted to take a screenshot of every scene.. it is all so pleasing to the eye.. god knows I WIIIISH the story was a bit better 😭

Final verdict: It is a cute little lighthearted film to watch on a slow day. It offers nothing much else though.

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