LOVE, 100°C (Korean Short Film)

Original Title: 사랑은 100℃
Release date: 2010
Director: Kwang-soo Jho Kim
Screenplay by: Kwang-soo Jho Kim
Cast: Do-jim Kim, Se-hyun Yun, Jae Won Kwak

No, this is not a smut short film. Be prepared for an awkward — non-explicit — beginning of Min-soo (Kim) masturbating to the Cyworld photo of a crush. Min-soo is a young man aware of himself, with a younger brother who doesn’t respect him only for the fact that he is hearing-impaired. Min-soo needs a hearing aid, but can read people’s lips if talked properly.

One day, when he and his brother are set to go to the public bathhouse, and is ditched on the way for his brother’s girlfriend, Min-soo meets the bathhouse’s scrubber, who is more than willing to provide some tender love and care.

LOVE, 100°C probably refers to the intense sexual nature of Min-soo’s encounter with the bathhouse scrubber, though simulated, is a step further from the happy and cute love stories people are used to from Kwang-soo Jho Kim shorts like Boy Meets Boy or Just Friends?. In here, he shows the perfectly cute of delicate demeanor Min-soo being picked on by his classmates, not because he is gay but because of his hearing problem which they confuse with an impediment with his brain. It’s probably not hard to imagine that they would also pick on him if they were to find out about his sexual orientation.

That feeling is even more foreshadowed by the ending, in which Min-soo’s scrubber lover gets found out at the bathhouse and gets beat up, which Min-soo witnesses but is unable to do anything, either by fear of getting beat up himself… or found out.

Overall, LOVE, 100°C is good even if a little jumbled between the contrast of Min-soo’s crush, his sexual desire, his relationship with his younger sibling, and his issues with standing up against society. The ending scene is quite devastating set to the Irish-stapled song Danny Boy. I do not get it either.

Rating: ★★★☆☆ 

Part of the 2011 LGBT Blogathon

UK & Ireland users can watch it on PeccadilloPod.

Ghost Writer

Here. There. Everywhere. Punished soul that usually watches what nobody wants, but sometimes gets lucky.

15 Responses

  1. Julili says:

    *drops jaw* omfg must see!

  2. ROXY says:

    Woah… sounds like I must watch it to make my own judgement *nod nod*

  3. oheykiki says:

    my interpretation was that min-soo was upset that he couldn’t help the scrubber guy but also because this meant that the scrubber guy tried to do what he did with min-soo with a lot of people, meaning he wasn’t special to him which is why he was crying in the end.

    • amy says:

      @oheykiki, ooooh, that’s a good one. How about the inclusion of Danny Boy as the ending song?

      • Camiele says:

        @amy, Maybe because Danny Boy is traditionally used as a song to symoblize a kid’s coming of age, it’s meant to represent Min-soo’s becoming more bold himself, only to realize that with this comes the pain of having to make decisions and own the mistakes that go along with them? That’s sort of how I interpreted, if not the lyrics of Danny Boy the overall sentiment of the song.

        But, you know, I’ve been hella wrong more times than I’ve been right… HaHa.

  4. Sayuri says:

    I think the ending was as a YouTube commenter suggested… Minsoo was hit with the reality that as a homosexual, he would not have an easy life and would not be accepted by the greater Korean community, and he felt as if he had nowhere to fit in – he would be bullied forever because of his sexuality and his hard-of-hearing.

  5. bintbint says:

    what the title of soundtrack in ending of movie?.. i want it

  6. bintbint says:

    and who sing it ???

  7. comets says:

    In the end of this story, min soo choosed to run away since he is afraid of this love! It will on longer exist. His love has just stared and he saw his guy is beaten up by a man! That man call min soo’s guy homosexual, it make min soo know that min soo’s guy do that to every person! Also, how can he faced with her mother and his brother while he just acts like a big brother.

  8. comets says:

    After i watched this short film, i feel very bad to him! If min soo’s guy didn’t involve in his life, he would not be like that. At least, he used to be happy man, but after this he cried alone without any encouragement.

    • Ghost Writer says:

      I think we’re supposed to feel bad for him, it means he stops being a character in a movie and stays with you. It’s definitely a different feel to his other films.

  9. comets says:

    i want to watch the next scene of this movie. How can min soo solve this? Will he still cry? Will the bathhouse’s srubber disturb and find him? Will he be strong? Can he survive in this condition.? I hope that the author will continue this scene.

  10. dell says:

    i thought the main actor too young…is he 18?

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