Based on a true story, this is a heartwarming fiction of a boy who really, really wants to build a train way station, the reasons behind his desires, and the relationships he has with his family, teacher, and his girlfriend. There were small moments that made me laugh out loud and revelations that made me sad. However, unfortunately, the movie is bogged down by some awkward editing choices and some gaps in the script that made me disappointed. I finished watching the movie with an overall positive feel, but couldn't help but wonder how a tighter production could have made it better.

For starters, I don't think the movie knows what it wants to be: the first half of the movie is setup as 75% romance and 25% drama. The second half of the movie focuses on paying off the dramatic story line that was setup in the beginning, but almost entirely forgets that it spent a lot of time developing a love story, ultimately feeling like 85% drama and 15% romance for the latter half. I think the movie could have been better by focusing on either plot line more completely and setting aside the other portion in the backdrop. Even without this, I think there may have been an editing opportunity here to improve the pacing.

In my opinion, one consequence of this lack of focus is the creation of dissatisfaction with some of the finer points of the story. For instance, early on, the movie introduces Ra Hee, our leading lady who inexplicably crushes on our main character, Jun Kyung. Why is she so drawn to him? I don't think this is ever explained and I feel because of that, their love story isn't really organic: you have this pretty girl who inexplicably throws herself at this weirdo guy until they are able to bond into a proper love. I mean, I was once an awkward, teenage boy, and I can tell you I would have killed for some pretty girl to be unrelentingly interested in me for no discernible reason...but unfortunately it's nowhere near believable in this movie. Moreover, there's some additional details that I think the director/screenwriter simply forgot to address: there is a scene where they ALMOST kiss, but aren't able to. Later on in the movie, she sends him an audiotape imploring him to "remember our first kiss," but the thing is, we as the audience are never shown this so it's like "what first kiss? Did I miss something?" And when you go back they didn't -- ultimately, it was either a scene that got changed at the last minute or it was done off-screen -- either possibility, it's a little silly.

Approximately 60% into the movie, there is a sharp shift from the focus away from the love story, and into some interesting family drama caused by some setup earlier. However, the tonal shift is awkward, because there's something like a ~30-40 minute window where Yoona has no screen time which is a little weird if we consider the love story to be important and one of the overarching threads that keep this movie together. Honestly, I feel that this family plot line could have been a story all by itself: if we removed the romance tag and just dropped Ra Hee, it could have worked as a complete, drama-focused coming of age story. To me, it feels like the screenwriter didn't know what they wanted and just decided to cram in two unrelated stories together and try their best to tie it together.

I'm not quite sure what to think of the acting. As a non-Korean speaker, even I can hear the strong accents that the actors use in this movie to mimic the regional dialect of the area, so I can only wonder if they did a good job (I assume they did). However, I think all of the cast had strong performances. As a matter of personal taste, I thought Park Jung Min looked way too old to be a high schooler, but perhaps that's a fault of the makeup/costuming more than the casting.

I thought the music was appropriate, but average. It sets up the ambience well, but nothing to write home about in the end. I think the movie is also going to be difficult to rewatch, because you already know what the key moment of the movie is and I don't feel that the little, heartfelt moments are enough to warrant an entire second viewing.

I really wanted to like this movie. I really did. I can say that I enjoyed it, but there's glaring flaws that make me sigh a bit, and wonder how it could have been markedly better if they just changed a few things.