Review of Ditto / 동감, directed by Seo Eun-young

If you’re new here and stumbled on this blog through the mythical and magical powers of the Internet, or because of whatever the search engines decided was going to show up today when you Google something, welcome! My name is Ashley, and I made this blog in addition to my author/writer portfolio because I wanted to remember all of the books, shows, and movies I was coming across throughout the years.

I read and watch a lot, and I used to work as a professional film critic on the side when I was in graduate school. While I loved going to film festivals and ploughing through 500 pages of readings a week, on top of my regular fiction and nonfiction TBR list, I wasn’t remembering everything at the end of the day.

So I started writing little reviews and posts to keep an archive. It’s also pretty fun to return to a book or movie after a few years, then come to this website to see what I thought about it originally. One could call this a mind map, especially as you can literally track changes in the way we think throughout a set period of time through this kind of work.

One of my greatest subscription loves throughout the past year is my Viki subscription. Not sponsored at all (I pay for my Viki subscription out of my own pocket), but because I consume a lot of Asian content in general, I find the Viki subscription to be worth it.

It was through my Premium subscription that I saw I had access to movies. I didn’t tap into this connection earlier, but when I noticed a Yeo Jin-goo movie was included with it, I wanted to watch Ditto immediately. He’s honestly my favorite male drama actor—I think he’s actually talented as an actor, which is saying a lot considering some drama actors are just there for eye candy.

Let’s get into the review! I don’t want to ramble too much in the introduction.

Two college students, decades apart, communicate through a handheld radio.

We begin this movie in 1999, when Kim Yong is a college student at a Korean university. He’s off doing his thing as a student, and the change of the century is an exciting one, especially considering what has happened in Korea in the 1900s, and the fact that they’re coming out of the Asian Financial Crisis.

But Yong is still a young man, and he has an eye on a girl in the school. It’s his first crush and love; he’s adorable when he tries to interact with the girl. However, things don’t look too great for him in the romance department, as she starts going out with someone he knows quite well.

Yong retreats back to his room and beloved turtle. He finds a ham radio that’s pretty old looking, and when he turns out a certain frequency, he befriends a new girl.

In 2022, sophomore college student (at the same school) Mo-nee is trying to figure out her own life and romance. She, too, has a turtle (there’s a very big connection going on here with said turtle—more on that later) and turns on the radio one night. It’s Mo-nee that Yong gets ahold of when he manages to get another person on the radio, and it blossoms into a friendship.

We don’t know how or why these two are able to communicate despite not living in the same time period, but throughout the course of the movie, they continue turning to each other in times of need. They give each other advice and their thoughts about their particular situations, although Mo-nee finds it weird that Yong doesn’t know modern language or items.

There are several times they try to meet up that they realize that something is wrong here. They go to the designated spot, but because they’re living in different periods, they don’t have actual access to seeing each other. They’re stuck in their respective periods and cannot actually meet.

We do learn later that the older Yong, who has become a novelist, helps Mo-nee out with her crush. Like, for example, he gives the guy an umbrella while she’s waiting for Yong in the rain, leading them to talk to each other and have an actual conversation.

Yong in 1999 does learn of heartbreak as well, and loses his turtle in the process, which ends up with Mo-nee in the present day.

Overall Thoughts

I’ve never seen the original version of this movie, but I thought this movie was quite sweet. I’ve never seen Yeo Jin-goo in a movie or show that manages to actually be fluffy and wholesome, so this was a nice change of pace for him as an actor.

Regardless, I find the plot to be pretty straightforward and not the best. It’s very trope-ridden for a modern day viewer, which wouldn’t exactly make it the kind of movie you watch for originality, but because you genuinely enjoy these kinds of movies. I enjoyed watching this, but I don’t know if I would return to it again.

Watch the film if you’re interested and can access it! You might find it quite worth it, and it’s a nice movie to unwind with on a Sunday night.

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