Even If This Love Disappears Tonight is an adaptation of a Japanese film and novel with a lengthy title that essentially means the same thing. The film tells the sad story of a young high school student who wakes up every day having forgotten the memories of the previous day. When a boy in her class asks her out so that some bullies will leave his friend alone, she decides to accept because she can finally experience something new.
As expected, Seo-Yoon and Jae-Won's lives are changed forever, but will they have a happy ending? The first half of the film is mostly comprised of happy memories that the young couple create together to cherish later. Except she can't cherish them; she can't even remember them. But Seo-Yoon manages to keep her anterograde amnesia a secret until one day Jae-Won witnesses it firsthand. However, instead of getting angry, the high school student quickly tells Seo-Yoon to forget everything and just move on, telling her that they should trick the next day's version of her together.
Director: Kim Hye-young
Writer: Misaki Ichijo
Stars: Choo Young-woo, Shin Si-ah, Jo Yoo-jung
The first time something truly goes wrong is when Seo-Yoon falls asleep on the bus after a wonderful date with Jae-Won. When she wakes up, she has already forgotten everything and doesn't know who is sitting next to her. Jae-Won tries to follow her when she gets on another bus in a panic, but that's when we first see him clutching his chest and doubling over in pain, making it clear that he is not well. Although Even If This Love Disappears Tonight is an aesthetically pleasing film about a sweet romance between a boy and a girl, it doesn't delve into the negative details. We never learn what's wrong with Jae-Won's heart. We only know that it's a defect he's had since birth. This already puts him at serious risk. Furthermore, we know that his mother died not long ago, which makes his father the saddest character in the film. I don't know how he can smile despite so much pain, because if I were in his shoes, I would have completely fallen apart. But anyway, by this point we already have a hint that Jae-Won is going to die, but we just didn't know how the story would end.
Without telling her anything about his heart condition, Jae-Won tells Seo-Yoon not to mention in her diaries that he knows about her memory loss. He's not just trying to make things easier for her; this gives him an excuse not to have to tell her that something is wrong with him. At least for a while, they can both pretend that everything is normal. If Seo-Yoon had written down this memory, she might have felt too guilty to treat Jae-Won the same way. She would have distanced herself, knowing that he knew she couldn't remember certain things. A classic mistake in cases where one party tells the other not to actually fall in love. Fake relationships are fun until one of them is dying and the other has no memories to keep their "fake" love alive.
The film doesn't explain a crucial part of this story, something we're used to finding out. If someone has a condition like memory loss, we need to know what caused it, right? But this film subverts our expectations and hopes we won't be too curious about the two main reasons for our sadness. What's wrong with Jae-Won's heart, and why can't Seo-Yoon remember? All we know is that she was in an accident when she was younger. What happened that day, we'll never know, but that's not the point of this story. Whatever it was, it damaged her hypothalamus to the point that she started having amnesia. Can it be cured? Apparently so, because at the end of the film, Seo-Yoon starts remembering her days and seems to be recovering. We wish this had happened while Jae-Won was still alive, but, alas, that would have given us an almost happy ending.
When they start their relationship, Seo-Yoon tells Jae-Won that he must follow three rules: the first is that communication would be brief, the second is that they would only talk after school, and the third and most important is that they had to make sure not to actually fall in love. Obviously, Jae-Won breaks this rule quite early on, but can Seo-Yoon break it if she doesn't even remember the boy?
Well, yes and no. The film is titled "Even If This Love Disappears Tonight," which means Seo-Yoon has definitely fallen in love with Jae-Won. But how could this happen if she can't create real memories with him? Jae-Won tells Seo-Yoon that the body remembers even if the mind doesn't. That's why, even when her best friend, Ji-Min, erases all the diary entries about Jae-Won and removes him from Seo-Yoon's memories, she continues to draw him. Sure, she doesn't know who he is, but his memory awakens a sense of familiarity in her. Similarly, when Jae-Won dies, Seo-Yoon can't remember him as a human being.
At the end of "Even If This Love Disappears Tonight," Seo-Yoon begins to remember small details, like telling her parents that she slept well the previous night. This is a huge step for her, and it means she's on the road to recovery, though perhaps not a complete one. But as she gets better, Seo-Yoon remembers everything she did with Jae-Won, when Ji-Min returns all the memories she had kept in a box. I guess she knew she would want them back. The beach, the arcade, the rain—it all connects back to that boy. Even though it hurts her, Ji-Min can't even dream of keeping her promise to Jae-Won, because Seo-Yoon deserves to remember. Finally, she gives her everything she needs to remember him again.
Also, it seems they both had some idea that the other was sick. In a flashback, we see Seo-Yoon writing Jae-Won's name in the cardiology section of the hospital when they were both there, and Jae-Won also saw her at that time, long before they even met. I wonder if this means he knew she was sick and still chose to be with her, or agreed to do so for that reason. Ultimately, both people who expected not to have full lives were able to experience something rare, pure, and beautiful.
Seo-Yoon even fulfills her promise to Jae-Won to return to the beach. But just as happiness can't last forever, even pain must find its end. In the end, Seo-Yoon plans to remember Jae-Won little by little, as he begins to fade from everyone else's memory. Jae-Won and Seo-Yoon's story could have been happy, but the ending is especially sad because they couldn't even say goodbye. That would have been too painful a memory to relive, so perhaps it all happened for a good reason.
The film takes an unexpected turn, something like "My Sister's Keeper." No, I won't give you spoilers, but what I mean is that it does something unexpected in an already heartbreaking story to surprise us even more. We already knew things were sad because Seo-Yoon couldn't remember, but that problem was resolved even before this story began. However, what happened with Jae-Won took us by surprise, because at first we thought he was a very kind person, which is why he helped his deskmate and even became friends with Seo-Yoon. But the truth is, if he hadn't clutched his chest at that moment, his death would have caught us completely off guard.
Some might call it a happy ending because Seo-Yoon recovers her memories, but it's a blessing and a curse at the same time, considering that the person with whom she would like to create new memories is gone forever. Perhaps it's an advantage that she has everything written down and that her body remembers it so perfectly, so that her ability to draw it flawlessly will never leave her. But it's a sad ending that leaves us devastated for both protagonists, who could have had a great story together.
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