Along With ROMA and Shoplifters, the Best Movie of 2018

Rating: 10/10 (11 January 2019)

I live in Seoul, Korea, and because the current audience review rating for this film in the Daum Movie, Korea's version of IMDb, is 9.3, the highest among the 2018 movies, even higher than ROMA's and Shoplifters', I went to see it for myself tonight. I am super glad that I did. I was captivated from the start to finish. The movie's narrative revolves around how two people with completely disparate background, educational level, and color of skin come to understand each other and become lifelong friends, fabulously complemented with a plethora of humorous scenes and dialogues, great music of piano pieces and indelible hit songs of the 60s, and a timely and needed message in this troubled era that we should not build walls around our hearts to discriminate and hate other people who do not share same skin color, culture, or ethnicity. The movie could have become overly serious or didactic, but the director skillfully avoids the pitfalls and does not try to needlessly expand the emotional effects. I hope more people would gravitate to the magic of this movie, letting the message break the walls in their hearts.