I've just finished watching Il Mare yesterday. And I've watched The Lake House some time back.


For those who don't know, Il Mare, which is "sea" in Italian, is a Korean movie made in year 2000 starring Jun Ji-Hyun as Eun-joo, a cartoon voice actress, and Lee Jung-Jae as Sung-hyun, a construction worker cum Architecture student. The Korean title is actually SIWORAE, which means "時越愛" or "Time Transcending Love". And The Lake House is a year 2006 remake of Il Mare starring Sandra Bullock as Kate Foster, a doctor, and Keanu Reeves as Alex Wyler, an architect. It's about a lady who has recently moved out of a house, leaving a letter in the mailbox for the next tenant to tell him to forward her mails to her new address. Strangely, the letter goes back in time to 2 years before, to the previous tenant instead. Slowly they fell in love with each other.

Personally, I think both movies are great, with Il Mare slightly tipping the scale due to Jun Ji-Hyun. Il Mare focused more on the 2 lead characters with Eun-joo living in year 1999 and Sung-hyun living in year 1997. While The Lake House tried to develop more of the supporting people, with Kate living in year 2006 and Alex living in year 2004. The ending is slightly different. I don't really like both ending.

Spoiler ahead

Close

Both started with the ladies moving out of the house, and the guy moving in. In Eun-joo's case, there's a guy helping her, but we can't see the guy. The girls then left a letter in the mailbox for the next occupant asking them to forward them their mails. Eun-joo is actually waiting for her boyfriend to contact her. He left for a oversea assignment which she don't want to go. She has not heard from him for sometime. Kate just don't trust the post office too much. Both letters are similar in content. They apologised for the paw prints but they were there when they moved in. Kate also mentioned about a box in the attic. Both guys thought nothing of the letters at 1st as they couldn't see any paw prints around and there's no box in the attic either. Song-hyun is also the 1st resident to Il Mare. In fact, he's the one who named the house. For Alex, the lake house has no occupant for the past 7 years. A few days later, a dog wondered to their house. And a few days later, they accidentally spilled some paint which the dog walk over and walk into the house, leaving behind the paw prints.

Then they replied saying that she has got the wrong date. For Kate, the day before she received the message, which is Valentines' Day 2006, she saw someone knocked over by a bus. She rushed to help him but is too late to save him and he died in her arms.

After a few correspondents, they discovered that they are living 2 years apart with the lady living in the future. The address that the guys supposed to forward to hasn't even been completed. It's the mail box that enable them to communicate with each other.

Eun-joo remembers that she lost her tape player 2 years ago at a train station and asks Sung-hyun to help her retrieve it, which he did and put it in the mailbox for her. Kate remembers that she left her favourite book, a gift from her father, Persuasion by Jane Austen, at the train station and asked Alex to retrieve it, which he did. However, he did not put it in the mailbox. He said that he'll pass to her somehow.

Eun-joo "takes" Sung-hyun to an amusement park, where he follows her instructions on how to have a good time at the park. Sung-hyun then "takes" her to a cafe where she drinks a bottle of wine he left for her two years ago. Alex sends Kate a personalized map of Chicago and takes her on a walking tour of his favorite places in the city one Saturday morning. He leaves her a loving message on a brick wall at the end written in 2004, that she sees in 2006. The message was "Kate, thank you for taking this walk with me together".

There are more supporting characters in The Lake House. eg. Alex have a female suitor whom he don't likes. Kate's boyfriend, Morgan, has more movie time than Eun-joo's. There's a few scenes in The Lake House that is not in Il Mare. One day, Alex's dog run loose and runs to Morgan's place. That's how Alex came to know him, and he invited Alex to a party he threw for Kate. Kate was frustrated with Morgan's smothering, though sincere ways. Even though she don't know Alex at that time, she shared a romantic moment with him and they kissed at the party, which was interrupted by Morgan. They broke up soon after. When Kate in the future realise that it was Alex she kissed in her party, she chided Alex for not telling her for she liked him that night.

Both guys' father are famous architect. Both are unhappy with their dad for some reason. Judging from Alex's conversation with his dad, he's unhappy that his dad leaves his mum. Judging from a 1 liner Sung-hyun's conversation with his friend, it's the same reason. Both dad was hospitalized some where in the middle of the movie. One day, Kate happened to see his death cert, she went out and bought his auto-biography as it wasn't available in Alex's time. She saw a paragraph where he tells about his love for his son. By the time he got it however, his dad was already dead. Similarly for Eun-joo, Sung-hyun asked her to check on his father when he knew that he's hospitalized. When she saw the book, she wanted to send the book to him immediately, but she got involved in an accident and the book only reach him after his father is dead.

They decide to met up. Eun-joo told Sung-hyun to meet her at a beach in an island in Korea in a week, which is 2 years for Sung-hyun. She says it's a nice place to build a house. Kate told Alex to book a place in the Il Mare restaurant, which is so popular that we need to make reservations way in advance. So Alex made a reservation for 2 in year 2007 2 years in advance in year 2005. The name of the restaurant is a cheeky reference to the Korean version.

Both guys did not turn up. For Eun-joo, she saw a construction at the place where she wanted to build a house. She was told the house was built for the architect's true love. Kate just sat at the restaurant alone till it closes. She's so disappointed that she decides that she do not want to keep in contact with Alex anymore. Both guys are puzzled by why they would miss such an important date.

From here onwards, the 2 versions are different. Eun-joo finally meet her boyfriend. He has met another girl while on his oversea assignment and they are getting married. Eun-joo is so sad that she asked Sung-hyun to help her stop him from leaving. Sung-hyun had fallen in love with Eun-joo and is sad that she do not seem to reciprocrate, but nevertheless, he agreed to do it. After sending the message to Sung-hyun, Eun-joo remembers that she saw a guy knocked down by a car. She immediately rushed to Sung-hyun's architectural school and finds out that Sung-hyun was really that pedestrian. And the house being built at the beach was designed by Sung-hyun for her. She rushes to the mailbox and sends a letter telling him not to go, but her memory remains of him being struck and killed.

For Kate, she went back together with Morgan and they lived together. Alex on respects her decision and decides to sell the house to Morgan of 2006, who'll give it to Kate, who'll move out in 2006, blah blah. Anyway, back to 2008, while watching TV, Morgan asked her to off the TV as it disturbs his work. Sulkingly, she went to the bedroom where she discover a squeaking floorboard. She found her Persuasion. Alex had hidden there for her 2 years ago. On seeing the book, she realized she still misses him.

On Valentines' Day 2008, she went to a design company with Morgan. While there, she saw a drawing by Alex. The company was actually opened by Alex and his brother. Gald that she has found Alex, she asked for his contact only to find out that he was killed in an accident 1 year ago. 1 year ago, when Alex realized it's Valentines' Day, he remembers a message from Kate which told him where he'll be. Since he knows that he'll miss his appointment 1 year later, he wants to meet Kate then. At that time, Kate has just sent him 1 message to ask him to redirect her mails to her while Alex had known Kate for 2 years. Anyway, he rushes back to the lake house to retrieve the message from Kate to verify and then rushes off to find Kate. When 2008 Kate realise that it's Alex who she saw killed by the bus, rushes to the mailbox and sent him a message telling him not to find her on Valentines' Day 2006, but to come find her 2 years later at the mailbox where she'll be waiting for her. She hopes that her letter got to Alex on time.

Alex did show up and they live happily ever after. I don't really like this ending. If Alex did not die, then he should have showed up the Il Mare, and Kate wouldn't have broke up with him and won't send him the message to meet her at the mailbox at 2008. It doesn't really make sense.

The last scene in Il Mare is a flashback to year 1999, where Eun-joo is moving out from the house. Sung-hyun showed up holding the letters she wrote him. She has not know about Sung-hyun at that time yet, and Sung-hyun did not appear in Eun-joo's timeline, so a new timeline would be created from there. I don't really like it like this as, if Eun-joo knows Sung-hyun too early, would she still have letter correspondence with Sung-hyun? But I prefer this version for how Sung-hyun died. Sung-hyun's death as actually caused by Eun-joo wanting him to help her with her boyfriend.

Close