Love Forecast plays on the fantasy that "nice guys" will get it in the end; that as long as they endure the torture of being in love with someone who doesn't feel the same way, they'll be rewarded for being so steadfast. This is a tired, toxic idea that has already been covered in countless films. Love Forecast doesn't really do anything to make the premise more palatable. It fetishizes two very difficult kinds of people, characters that we wouldn't have much patience for in real life.
Hyun-woo (Moon Chae-won, voiced in Tagalog by Donnalyn Bartolome) is a very popular weather girl for a major network. She rose to fame through her Internet videos, where she showed a sunny disposition while reporting the weather. In truth, this TV sweetheart is a foul-mouthed drunk who is constantly abusing her best friend Jun-su (Lee Seung-gi, voiced in Tagalog by Josh Padilla). Jun-su, who has always been unlucky in love, has always been there for her. And he's actually been in love with her since they were children. But she's never returned his romantic affections, and instead chases after the wrong kind of guys.
The film is selling the tragedy of the friend zone. The film makes the case that the two are clearly meant to be with each other, since they both like to eat trotters or something. This discounts the fact that these just don't seem to be very good for each other. They treat each other poorly, and end up saying some pretty horrible things. Ultimately, the film's conception of romance is being willing to put up with the bad behavior of the person with which you're in love. Because otherwise, you might not have anyone to eat trotters with. This is a story of inherent compatibility, and has little to do with characters earning the affections of the other.
As the film rolls on, it just becomes harder and harder to feel any sympathy for these people. Because it isn't enough that they're being miserable. They're spreading their misery to other people, doing things that affect other lives. But in the end, we're supposed to forgive all of it, because it's all part of their lengthy journey to being able to admit that they love each other. And it just doesn't seem worth it. The characters are so bad for so long that it's difficult to see why we should be happy for them in the end.
This is all wrapped up in a pretty solid if unremarkable technical package. The film is geared towards focusing on the performances, which are okay. Of course, the localization makes it a little hard to judge how good the acting actually is. But both Moon Chae-won and Lee Seung-gi display a physicality of performance that goes beyond words. On their part, the Tagalog dubbing from local personalities Josh Padilla and Donnalyn Bartolome doesn't seem to get in the way of telling this story.
Love Forecast invests too much in these characters being horrible to each other. In theory, it's all just there to build to their eventual reunion, to make their mutual belated declarations of love all the more special. But watching it play out, it just feels frustrating. It just becomes hard to care about what these characters actually want. Stories certainly should be about imperfect people, but the film takes too long to show us how perfect their love could be. It doesn't really feel like these two are better off together, no matter how pretty everything looks.
My Rating:
