Il Mare

Il Mare is a South Korean fantasy romance about a seaside house of that name and the two people who live in it at different moments in time. In 1999, Kim Eun-ju moves out and leaves a card in the mailbox asking whoever takes her place to forward her mail. Han Sung-hyun, an architect who moves in during 1997, finds the note and answers it. Through their letters the two discover that the same mailbox connects them across a gap of two years, and a correspondence grows between them as they try to make sense of the distance that separates them.

Lee Hyun-seung directed the film, working from a screenplay by Kim Eun-jeong, Yeoh Gee-na and Won Tae-yeon, with Lee Min-su producing. It was made by Sidus, Blue Cinema, Dream Venture Capital and UniKorea Pictures on a budget of 25 million dollars. Jun Ji-hyun plays Kim Eun-ju and Lee Jung-jae plays Han Sung-hyun, with Kim Mu-saeng, Cho Seung-yeon, Min Yun-jae and Kim Ji-mu among the supporting cast. Running 96 minutes, the film was released on 9 September 2000.

Audience response has been durable rather than overwhelming: on IMDb it holds a rating of 7.5 from more than 9,300 votes, and on TMDB it has a rating of 7.4 from around 200 votes. The two scores agree closely, suggesting that viewers who seek the film out tend to regard it favourably.