After a failed engagement, photo shop owner Jung-won (Han Suk-kyu) is in his 30s and lives with his relatives: his sister, her husband and child, and his father.

Part of his coming to terms with his fate, just when he has found happiness again, is breaking off all contact with Da-rim by closing the photo shop.

After a period of time, Jung-won secretly observes how Da-rim is happily doing her job again and satisfied that his plan has worked.

Because of its success, the film received a commercial release at the Hong Kong Art Center on August 3, 1999, and the Broadway Cinematheque from September 30 till November 24, 1999.

It was one of the titles garnering critical and popular support for the emerging Korean film industry, as well as inspiring subsequent works made in its tribute.

Actor Jang Hyuk reportedly studied the film in preparation for his comeback role in MBC drama Thank You.

[5] Assistant Director Park Heung-sik was influenced by particular scenes of Jung-won washing rice and teaching his father the VCR remote control, for his film Bravo, My Life!.

[6] Characters in Barking Dogs Never Bite and Girls' Night Out are shown, respectively, watching scenes of the VCR remote and lovers' stroll.

Han and Shim are named as ideal casting choices by the eponymous aspiring script writer in My Sassy Girl.

The film landed in the top spot of Movie Week's special feature of 10 Best Korean Romance/Melodrama from 1980 to 2007,[7] touting the lead performances as gold standards of the genre.

In the same feature, noted director Song Hae-sung of Failan, names the scene of a lonely Jung-won singing "In the Street" by Kim Kwang-seok (whose funeral portrait inspired Hur Jin-ho's debut film), as a particularly resonant example of melodrama transcending its genre to express humanity's essence.

Like a photo, he wanted to preserve his memories of Da-rim while they were still innocent and happy, unlike his childhood love, which turned out to be an unfortunate ending.

But at the end of the movie, it is seen that Da-rim's portrait remained in his shop window, symbolizing how Jung-won will never forget about her and take her out of his life.

After this scene he begins to display more emotion about his imminent death, for example when he was at the police station he started to yell and cry causing a commotion, which was uncharacteristic of him to do.

She found herself falling in love with Jung-won and she eventually started to transition her appearance by wearing make-up.