You Are the Apple of My Eye

A high school in Chuncheon, the summer of 2002. The World Cup is being played in Korea and Japan and the city is watching the matches. Jin-woo is eighteen; he has no interest in lessons, spends his time with his friends, and is in love with Seon-ah, the best student in the class. The teacher sits him in front of her so that she will make him study. The arrangement works and the two grow closer. But Jin-woo can never say it. The examinations pass, university comes and the two go to different cities. Years later an invitation arrives. Cho Young-myoung directs; it is his first feature. Jung Jinyoung plays Jin-woo and Dahyun plays Seon-ah. It is a Korean production. The film is a remake of the Taiwanese film made in 2011; the source is Giddens Ko's novel drawn from his own life. Dahyun is a member of the group Twice and this is her first film. The Korean adaptation moves the story to the summer of the World Cup and builds its period atmosphere through that. It opened on 21 February 2025. The matter it treats is the thing not said; both characters know and neither speaks. The narrative grants no reunion and the ending lands where the original did. Its limit is originality; the adaptation stays close to its source and brings no reading of its own. Who it is for: viewers who like Korean films about the young and stories of first love. Who it is not for: it repeats for anyone who saw the original, the humour is crude in places, and the ending sad.