An Early Rain: Who's the Drip?

The giddy excitement a new raincoat elicits from spacey hired domestic (Mun Hie) seems like that of a child. "What should I do? This raincoat is changing my life?" she queries after a frolic at the local nightclub where she finds herself the somewhat improbably unparalleled object of desire for all the suits and the musicians on site. The one who continues in hot pursuit of her is a womanizing mechanic (Shin Sung-il), who — mistaking her for the daughter of the French Ambassador — dumps his sugar mama, hustles his former flings, and gets himself a new suit so he can... take her to a bar for a televised wrestling match?

Not exactly the ideal date but she seems to like it well enough. Hell, she even stays in good spirits when, on the way back home, the stolen car gets a flat tire and the engine conks out. Is it love? A mutual infatuation? Or two young people projecting their fantasies of a better life on each other's mistaken identities? I suppose for some people that might pass for romance and could even end up in troublesome marriage if neither party gets found out.

But the opportunities to find out are somewhat limited in Jeong Jin-woo's An Early Rain because their dates are dictated by the weather: These two only meet when there's a downpour. Are gray skies ahead for this pair of pretenders? Of course, they are... which leads to fun times at the roller rink, the amusement park, the horse track, and a boat ride. And less fun times, that remind you that though money can't buy you love, it can purchase something more disturbing and more violent.