South Korea · Film · 2015
Summer Snow
Binge Brief
- Released on 28 October 2015, 115 minutes, distributed by Showbox, produced by Timebox
- The Korean title is 미안해 사랑해 고마워, Sorry, I Love You, Thank You; Summer Snow is only the export title
- An omnibus of three stories, each built on one of those three phrases
- Seo Kang Joon plays Han Sang-gyu, a supporting part; Korean Wikipedia lists him seventh in the cast
- It sold 51,207 tickets, which makes it a commercial failure, while its trailer passed 5.3 million views before release
- Jeon Yun-su's first film as director in six years, and the screen debut of Yoo Hye-in
Synopsis
The Korean title is the film's structure. 미안해 사랑해 고마워 means sorry, I love you, thank you, and the film is three separate stories, one built on each phrase, running alongside each other until they touch.
In the first, a detective, Kang Myung-hwan, played by Ji Jin-hee, carries the death of his own child and has to deal with the daughter of the driver who caused it. In the second, a manager has spent a decade in love with the actress whose career he runs and has never said so; that strand carries Kim Sung-kyun opposite Sung Yu-ri, and it is where the film's sharpest material sits. In the third, two men who fought each other as boxers meet again in a hospital ward with nothing left to settle and everything left to say.
Seo Kang Joon plays Han Sang-gyu inside that ensemble. MyDramaList glosses the character as the actress's younger brother, which fits the shared surname, though no source states the relationship outright.
The director said plainly what he wanted from it. Jeon Yun-su told a Korean magazine in October 2015 that he hoped the film would be a consolation to exhausted people, and the film is built for that rather than for surprise.
Why it still gets watched
It is the least seen title in Seo Kang Joon's filmography, and that is most of why people look it up. Fifty-one thousand admissions is a small number for a film with Ji Jin-hee, Kim Sung-kyun, Sung Yu-ri and Kim Young-chul in it, and the gap between that and the 5.3 million views its trailer got is the story Korean press covered at the time.
What survives is the second strand. Kim Sung-kyun plays a manager who has loved the actress he works for since before she was famous and has arranged his whole professional life around never saying it. It is the kind of part Korean cinema usually gives to a younger man and plays for laughs, and neither happens here.
Summer Snow cast
Filming locations
Nothing is published. KMDb, namu.wiki, Korean Wikipedia, cine21 and the Korean press coverage carry no location list for this film, and the filming period is not documented either.
Themes and messages
Three sentences people do not say. The film's premise is that sorry, I love you and thank you are the three things that go unsaid longest, and it gives each one a story rather than a speech.
Forgiveness is not owed and is given anyway. The detective's strand puts a bereaved father in a room with the child of the person responsible. Nothing in the situation requires him to be kind, which is the point of it.
Proximity is not intimacy. The manager sees the actress every day of his working life and is further from her than a stranger would be. Ten years of access has bought him nothing, because he has never used the one sentence that would change anything.
Old rivalry turns into the last company you keep. The two boxers spent their careers trying to beat each other and end up in the same ward, where the fight is the only shared history either of them has.
Consolation as a stated aim. The director said the film was meant to console exhausted people. That is a modest ambition and the film is built to it, which is also the fairest criticism of it.
Interesting facts
- The English title is a trap. Summer Snow is only the export title. The Korean title is 미안해 사랑해 고마워. Two completely different works are routinely confused with it: 여름아 부탁해, a 128-episode KBS1 daily drama released in English as Home for Summer, which ran in 2019 and does not feature Seo Kang Joon at all; and Ann Hui's 1995 Hong Kong film 女人四十, which is what English Wikipedia's Summer Snow article actually covers. English Wikipedia has no article on this film.
- The trailer outsold the film by a factor of a hundred. The teaser passed 5.3 million views before release, which Korean press covered as a story in itself. The film then sold 51,207 tickets.
- The release date moved twice. First announced for October, then fixed at 29 October 2015, then finally moved to 28 October.
- Its official registration number is a 2014 code. The Korean Film Council's film code for it is 20149961, and some Korean sources consequently date it 2014. It was completed in 2014 and held for a 2015 release.
- It was the director's first film in six years. Jeon Yun-su had not directed a feature since 2009.
- It was Yoo Hye-in's screen debut, and pre-release press pushed the pairing of a debutante with Seo Kang Joon as one of the film's selling points.
- The director said what moved him on set. He described the crew being reduced to tears by the child actress Kwak Ji-hye playing opposite Ji Jin-hee, and called the work of Kim Young-chul and Lee Kye-in a strange ensemble of guilelessness and held emotion.
- Jung Woong-in appears in a special appearance as a television producer, at the end of a supporting cast list running past forty names.
Soundtrack
Starting the player loads Spotify, which sets its own cookies.
| Track | Artist |
|---|---|
| Canopy | Susie Suh, 27 Oct 2016 |
| Summer Snow | Hwang Sang Jun, 27 Oct 2016 |
| 미안해 그리고 | Hwang Sang Jun, 27 Oct 2016 |
| 사랑해 그리고 | Hwang Sang Jun, 27 Oct 2016 |
| 고마워 그리고 | 노형우, 27 Oct 2016 |
| 이제 갈까요 | Ma Sang Woo, 27 Oct 2016 |
| 태양의 연인들 | 박은지, 27 Oct 2016 |
| 한판 뜰까 | Ma Sang Woo, 27 Oct 2016 |
| 넌 안돼 | Hwang Sang Jun, 27 Oct 2016 |
| 지하철 안에서 | Lee Aram, 27 Oct 2016 |
| 다음 장소로 이동 | 박은지, 27 Oct 2016 |
| 아빠라서 참 좋아 | Ma Sang Woo, 27 Oct 2016 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Summer Snow a film or a drama?
A film. It is a 115-minute South Korean theatrical feature released on 28 October 2015 and distributed by Showbox. The confusion comes entirely from its English title.
Is Summer Snow the same as Home for Summer?
No, and they have nothing to do with each other. Home for Summer is the English title of a different production, the KBS1 daily drama 여름아 부탁해, which ran to 128 episodes in 2019 and does not feature Seo Kang Joon. A third work, Ann Hui's 1995 Hong Kong film 女人四十, is also released in English as Summer Snow, and it is that film, not this one, that English Wikipedia's Summer Snow article covers.
What is the Korean title?
미안해 사랑해 고마워, which translates as Sorry, I Love You, Thank You. The three phrases are the film's structure: it is an omnibus of three stories, one for each.
Who does Seo Kang Joon play?
Han Sang-gyu. Korean Wikipedia lists him seventh in the cast; MyDramaList files him under supporting roles and glosses the character as the actress's younger brother. The shared surname with Sung Yu-ri's Han Seo-jung is consistent with that, but no source states the relationship outright, so this record does not assert it.
How did it do at the box office?
Badly. It sold 51,207 tickets, which for a film with Ji Jin-hee, Kim Sung-kyun, Sung Yu-ri and Kim Young-chul in it is a failure. Its trailer had passed 5.3 million views before release, which Korean press wrote about at the time.
Where can I watch Summer Snow?
Fawesome TV carries it free with ads and Cineverse streams it. Apple TV rents or sells it in the US store. There is no JustWatch US page for it; the slugs that look right lead to other films.
Did it win any awards?
No. Nothing at the Blue Dragon, Grand Bell, Baeksang or Buil awards across 2015 and 2016, and nothing in any reference database. That is consistent with how few people saw it.
Is there an OST?
Yes. Music from the Original Korean Film, a twelve-track album, came out on 27 October 2016. Four of the tracks are credited to the composer, Hwang Sang-jun; the rest go to Ma Sang-woo, Susie Suh, Lee Aram and two more singers.
How long is it, and what is it rated?
115 minutes, rated 15 and over in Korea. cine21, namu.wiki, Letterboxd and MyDramaList all agree on the running time.
Is Summer Snow worth watching?
It is a modest film and it knows it. The strongest of the three strands is Kim Sung-kyun's manager, in love with the actress he works for and ten years past being able to say so. The director said his aim was to console exhausted people, and if that is what you want from a film, it does it. If you want surprise, it will not give you any.
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