Title: 26 Years Diary aka Anata wo Wasurenai
Genre: Drama/Romance
Director: Hanado Junji
Format: Movie; 130 minutes.
Dates: 27 Jan 2007

Synopsis: Having just completed his military service, Lee Su-yon is at a crossroads in life. He decides he wants to pursue his studies in Japan, a country whose culture intrigues him and also the country where his father, who he greatly reveres, spent a short period of his childhood. When he arrives in Japan, he’s enthralled by the lively street culture, but he soon becomes involved with Yuri, an upcoming singer with her own challenges to deal with.

The Highlights
Social commentary: Brings the specific case of tension between Koreans and Japanese into focus.
Characters: Lee Su-yon is unfortunately portrayed in a dull fashion.
Pacing: Frequently lingers on some rather pointless scenes in the first half.
Drama: Misses some opportunities; clumsy at times.
Ending: I hope this isn’t what really happened.

26 Years Diary is commonly promoted as being a true account of the life and death of a Korean student studying in Japan, but there is a bit of controversy regarding how much of the movie’s events are fictionalized. In all honesty, this controversy does give the film a bit less credibility in my eyes, but I don’t see any point in taking this into account in this review. Nonetheless, 26 Years Diary is a very ambitious film, but it’s also very flawed. It has some interesting ideas on ethnic tension and international relations, but a lack of direction and tepid characterization eventually bring it down.

The film basically consists of two intertwined strands, the first dealing with Lee Su-Yon’s romance with an emerging Japanese musician Yuri, played by ex-High and Mighty Color lead singer, Maakii, while the other is a larger analysis of Japan’s attitude towards Koreans living in the country from a number of different viewpoints. Certainly the film is at its strongest when it’s dealing with the latter. From my own point of view as a Westerner that doesn’t know much about this very specific case of ethnic tension between Koreans and Japanese, the exposition is both eye-opening and commendable.

The romantic aspect of the story is adequate, but not brilliant. There’s enough weight to the relationship that it makes sense, but there’s simply not enough to the characters, particularly of Su-yon, to leave an impression. The characterization of Su-yon, the main character, is easily the Achilles’ heel of the movie. Simply put, he’s portrayed as bland, without interesting flaws or much personality, but with enough naïve wisdom to have the perfect piece of advice for every troubled person he encounters (which often challenges believability). Yuri is fortunately much more interesting; obstinate and principled (she has one of the best scenes in the film when she throws a glass of water at an obnoxious record producer), she laments the breakup of her family and her strained relationship with her racist, besieged father, and the similarities she sees between the two of them.

Her father, played by Takenaka Naoto, is another noteworthy character, but his irrational attitude towards Koreans is never fully explained outside of the ambiguous suggestion that it was borne out of a failed business deal. Considering the primary contention of the film, that the racial tension is a warped consequence of a larger societal apathy (the history between the two countries is mostly treated as secondary and not thoroughly explained, taken, I assume, as largely understood by the audience), they missed a great opportunity to really say something about this particular character in his unique position at the centre of both primary aspects of the movie, ie, the romance and the social commentary.

The Korean policy of mandatory military service was briefly addressed, but nothing of consequence was said in this scene, which made me wonder why it was brought up at all. The movie also has some shocking pacing (the entire first half could have been compressed into thirty minutes) and gets quite heavy and clumsy with its drama. The final decisions some of the characters came to, particularly Yuri and her father, struck me as rather insensitive. There’s just enough worthwhile stuff in this film to make it watchable, and while I’m not quite so cynical (operative word being “quite”) as to suggest that it was little more than a vehicle for Maakii’s career, I do think several things could have been handled far better, not least of which included its respect to the memory of the departed whose story its supposedly based on.

The Rating: 5

Reviewed by: Sorrow-kun