K-Drama Flashback: ‘One Spring Night’

One Spring Night (2019) is a love story, but one very tough to navigate in the face of social ills. The romance is very real—dense with emotion and longing—but very mature at the same time.

In a bustling city alive with tens of thousands of people and their experiences, One Spring Night revolves around two: Yoo Ji-ho (Jung Hae-in) and Lee Jeong-in (Han Ji-min), from different walks of life, who find themselves drawn together in a random encounter that’s about to change everything.

Ji-ho, a single father and a pharmacist, has been putting up with the stigma that often accompanies his status as a single parent of raising a child while fending off the judgmental whispers echoing through his surroundings and wrestling with it almost every day. Meanwhile, Jeong-in, a librarian, is stuck in an odd relationship with a man she can no longer muster the will to “feel deeply for” and has resigned herself to a life of adjustments, her desires for true love seemingly out of reach.

Interestingly, their tracks meet one morning when the air is fragrant with cherry blossoms and perhaps the prospect of a new beginning. Weary of the obligations of his lonely life and the weight of things he must endure, Ji-ho gets hooked by Jeong-in when she comes to his pharmacy for hangover cures. At that point, strong feelings of a budding romance create an attachment that goes beyond the framework of their respective lives.

One Spring Night discusses the prevailing prejudices and deeper realities that we often face when trying to deal with the complexities of family dynamics, relationships, and conservative norms. An uncomfortable environment is given off by its instances of sexism, violence, greed, and a noxious community that Ji-ho and Jeong-in are a part of that affects them, triggering feelings of isolation. 

In time, they find themselves getting drawn ever closer, their conversations belying their early reservations with their comfort and closeness. Enthralled by Jeong-in’s endearing interactions with his son, Ji-ho feels inspired to let go of the walls of awkwardness dragging him down. Likewise, Jeong-in can’t help but keep thinking about him; she begins to doubt her relationship with Kwon Gi-seok (Kim Jun-han). Even so, Ji-ho and Jeong-in are aware of just how hard it would be to be together and ponder giving up on each other.

The thing that hooks me most about One Spring Night is how true to life the story is; the hardships of the protagonists are just as real as the topics raised, and everything about it is so convincing. The man can no longer deny how strongly he feels for the woman, and she’s also on the same boat, while also on the receiving end—unable to claw her way out of her current relationship or start a new one where her heart resides. Similar to his Something in the Rain, director Ahn Pan-seok re-creates his portrayal of women who challenge patriarchy while Ji-ho, her sisters, and her mother experience an empowering, slow, but steady character development.

I’ve nothing to say about the performances—it’s a perfect 10, inch perfect! Jung He-in is the cherry on top, a sweet synonym for a lover, and his and Han Ji-min’s characters rise to the occasion to eventually get their happy ending, amid the gales of criticism and the clouds of their ordeals. One Spring Night signifies pursuing desires, overcoming challenges, helping each other, making decisions, moving forward, and finding happiness through heartwarming moments with OSTs most in sync. 

I can’t miss out on one more [specific] aspect of One Spring Night, which may or may not have hit you like it did for me. Some gorgeous soft slow-motion scenes accentuate the subtleties of this love story—a handsome man and a beautiful woman, their romantic tension, their unspoken feelings, the tender moments, the scenic urban landscape—and the idyllic capturing of them highlights the details of character expressions and actions, the emotional significance, and the aesthetic value of this K-drama.