Christmas in August

Jung-won is a photographer in his thirties who runs a small studio in Seoul, developing pictures for walk-in customers while quietly carrying the knowledge that a terminal illness has left him with little time. He keeps up his routine and says nothing about his condition to those around him. His life changes when Da-rim, a traffic officer who becomes a regular customer at the shop, draws his attention, and the two begin to grow close. She does not know how ill he is, and the relationship develops under that unspoken weight.

Christmas in August is a Korean drama from 1998, and it was Hur Jin-ho's first feature as director, opening the run of films that continued with One Fine Spring Day, April Snow, Dangerous Liaisons, The Last Princess, Forbidden Dream, A Normal Family and The Assassin(s). The screenplay was written by Oh Seung-uk, Hur Jin-ho and Shin Dong-hwan. Han Suk-kyu plays Jung-won and Shim Eun-ha plays Da-rim, with supporting turns from Shin Gu, Oh Ji-hye, Lee Han-wi and Jeon Mi-seon. It runs 97 minutes.

Audiences have kept the film in view over the decades since its release. On IMDb it holds a rating of 7.5 from around 4,200 votes, and on TMDB it has a rating of 7.7 from a smaller body of just under a hundred votes. The steadier, widely cast IMDb figure reflects a reputation sustained by viewers well beyond the film's original run in Korean cinemas.