Hur Jin-Ho Returns with 호우시절 (The Season of Good Rain)

For just about every other Korean director dealing with melodramas, rain usually ends up becoming the most trite of cliches, coming on cue to suggest moods just like cigarette smoke pampers the scripts of films noir with its ad-hoc lyricism. But if it's Hur Jin-Ho, then things are a little different. The brilliant mind behind melodrama classics like 8월의 크리스마스 (Christmas in August), 봄날은 간다 (One Fine Spring Day) and 행복 (Happiness) has in fact chosen rain as a sort of thematic trait d'union for his latest work, the China-Korea co-production 호우시절 (好雨時節, The Season of Good Rain). What is fascinating about the title is that Hur took inspiration from a work by Tang Dynasty poet Du Fu entitled 春夜喜雨 (Basking in Rain on a Spring Night). Its incipit, reciting 好雨知时节，当春乃发生。(Good rain knows when to come, It awaits the Spring to fall) suggests our theme, the importance of timing in relationships.

Starring Jung Woo-Sung and Wang Xiaoshuai's "muse," Gao Yuanyuan from 南京! 南京! (City of Life and Death) and the insanely epic CCTV historical drama 大秦帝國 (The Qin Empire), The Season of Good Rain tells the story of two people who meet again by coincidence in China, after first frequenting each other in the US. So, yes, very basic and even conventional, but it's Hur Jin-Ho. He does wonders with the simplest things. Film is slated for a Fall 2009 release, after which Hur will go international, with the PPP-funded In Dreams. In the meantime, you can take a look at the trailer for The Season of Good Rain below the break.