The Summer (2021) (MOVIE)
(this review was originally posted on tumblr on june 16th at 9:11 am, this is a copy-paste of the original review, as my opinion has not changed)
Summary;
That summer, a tiny bud of love bloomed between two 18-year-old girls. That moment, “one was a flower petal brushing against the other, a flow of water”. Bestselling author Eunyoung Choi’s short story ‘That Summer’ is being retold through animation, taking us inside the love story of two girls, Leekyoung and Suey, and the gentle changes their feelings go through. (SOURCE: Red Dog Culture House)
(NOTE: Red Dog Culture House calls the two mains Leekyoung and Suey, but for my review I will be calling them Li-Kyung and Sui, since that’s what the subtitles on the rip I watched called them, and it feels more correct.)
Alright, this is the first ever shoujo-ai media I’ve ever reviewed, and what a choice it is! I’m writing this right after finishing the movie, so I’m sorry if my thoughts are disorganized, I’m just so excited to talk about this film that I couldn’t even wait to let the feelings stew!
For starters, this film is amazing, I just need to get that out there right now. It’s so, so very realistic, and every character in it feels *real*, like they could be a person you could meet in real life. Their emotions jump through the screen, and hit you right in the chest.
Both Li-Kyung and Sui are extremely complicated people, full of their own tragedies and faults, flaws and hopes, dreams, pure personality!
Li-Kyung is not a sympathetic protagonist, she lies, she cheats, and she fucks up. She, at least in my opinion, is the ‘bad guy’ in her situation. She tends to acknowledge it, but she doesn’t make many strides to better herself, only digging herself further into a self-hating hole which eventually causes her to lose someone who truly, deeply, loved her, and hurt that person in the process.
Now, this may seem like a critique, but frankly I think its amazing. I think it’s a good thing that Li-Kyung fucks up. It makes for an incredible story, and feels very human.
Sui, quite frankly, deserves better. And I think that’s awesome.
Sui is a wonderful character as well. She has her own flaws as well, being withdrawn and seemingly uncaring, though it’s later found that she just struggles with being open to people. She’s hardworking, she’s honest when she has something to say, and she seems to be bettering her life, all the while wanting to support Li-Kyung and cultivate a successful relationship with her.
It’s quite clear that Li-Kyung struggles with seeing things from other’s perspectives. She acts as though Sui doesn’t care about her, and to be fair to Li-Kyung, Sui doesn’t often say that she cares about Li-Kyung with words, but Sui works hard to show her care through actions. Li-Kyung never asks Sui “Do you care about me?” Because she’s already made up her mind that Sui doesn’t.
It’s beautiful, in every sense of the word, and it’s the first thing I’ve reviewed to genuinely, wholeheartedly, make me cry. There’s a scene where Sui breaks down crying, and I nearly cried as hard as she did. The voice acting, while the audio quality could be a bit… okay, the audio quality is shitty sometimes, but I can forgive it, the voice acting is still awesome, despite their sometimes-horrible microphones.
All in all, watch this movie. Now.