When it comes to tearjerkers, Koreans don’t mess around. They are not satisfied with a movie or TV drama that makes you sniffle a bit. They demand full-on bawling. Maybe this is because Koreans have a long history of being occupied, colonized, and brutalized by foreign invaders. (Not to mention that they have been in a state of war with each other for the last 63 years.) Or maybe it’s something in our DNA. Whatever it is, tragedy seems to be as much a part of the Korean psyche as freedom is to ‘Merica’s.
So I was not surprised that My Love, Don’t Cross That River—an immensely popular 2014 South Korean documentary about a sweet elderly couple facing their imminent demise—was going to require tissues, and lots of them…
