Jarring plot jolts make
‘Bungee Jumping’ an
unusual romantic tale

HIFF FACTS

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By Burl Burlingame
BBurlingame@starbulletin.com

It's probably good to know going in to "Bungee Jumping on Their Own" that it's a mystery, and not the awkward, dorky romance it appears to be for the first half when goofy boy bumps into lovely, wet girl in the rain, their hearts swell with passion and undying troth, and they appear to be mated forever, souls united for all time, blah blah blah.

One of the cool things about foreign films is that you can compare everyday social customs to our own. In this case, it's teenage dating in South Korea, where much is made of smoking -- the chicks dig it! -- and of metaphysical babble. Anyway, dork gets girl. Cue the strings. Or does he?

The film suddenly shifts forward more than a dozen years, and the dork is older and broodier, now a popular high school teacher. He's popular with the kids. He's married with children, and the missus ain't the damp beauty of his youth. What happened? For the first time, the film starts to get interesting.

"Bungee Jumping on Their Own" Screening at 6 p.m. tomorrow at Dole Cannery 9, 3 p.m. Monday at Signature Windward Mall, and 12:30 p.m. Wednesday at Dole Cannery 8

At this point, gasoline is spread on the embers. There's one boy in his home room who reminds him of his long-lost love, and teacher gets weird. And he becomes what the school counselors call "inappropriate." He smolders with lust whenever he's near the boy. Quelle scandale!

Even when he's beating the boy mightily on the backside with a strap in front of the class -- note: try THAT in an American school -- he's crazy about the kid. And the kid is hot for teacher.

Will this homoerotic soap opera end tragically? The filmmakers cut it both ways, actually. Let's put it this way: if you believe in reincarnation, it's a happy, logical ending and you will sniff back your salty tears. If not, you will wonder why bungee is mentioned in the title when it's nowhere in sight, and these star-crossed lovers could really use some at the moment.

Despite the afterschool-special execution, "Bungee Jumping on Their Own" takes a thought-provoking idea and runs with it, and opens up a dialogue on the nature of true love: do you love the person, or their sex? How much of one influences the other?

Technical credits are first-rate, and the lead actress really does look fetching in the rain.

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