The Teacher's Diary was a pleasant surprise. Heartwarming, lighthearted, meaningful, sweet and funny, The Teacher's Diary has moments that feel earnest, sincere and touches your heart. The tightly-scripted story is simple: Two strangers who has never met before and spend the entirety of the film apart, but walked the same path - teaching rural kids in a remote floating houseboat school with no electricity, phone service or Internet. But a personal diary written by Ann, was discovered by Song and this connects them together.
The film is filled with a handful of jokes that provides a few laughters here and there. The editing was done well such that the alternating scenes of Ann and Song are presented coherently in the film. It was evenly paced and the story flows nicely as well. Not to mention, the widescreen cinematography of the lake location is simply stunning.
As with many romance comedies, the film won't work without its charming and likable leads. Of the two teachers, Ann, the female lead, is the better one - smarter, braver, skilled among the two, capable of adapting her life at the houseboat school with the kids. On the other hand, Song, the male lead, breaks his arm as soon as he reaches the school and struggling to teach the kids algebra maths (because he sucks at maths). Although they are different, they share the same ideals towards teaching the young. It's their passion and dedication towards teaching that brings them together as one. Their relationship troubles due to the nature of their jobs were well presented. All the kids are lively and likable as well.
Song's infatuation and admiration for Ann was sincere and it doesn't feel creepy at all. We can see that Song was genuinely fascinated by Ann's dedication towards teaching, through her personal thoughts and frustrations while teaching at the school. After Song leaves and Ann resumes her teaching at the school, she was touched that her dedication inspires others and starts to admire Song after hearing things about him from the kids and his writings in her diary. The film never overdoes the melodrama and making it overly sentimental.
Romance aside, the film touched on the true meaning of education. It highlights the problems in today's teaching practices. Education shouldn't be just for the sake of grades or marks, but for the sake of knowledge and understand the things around you.
Overall, it's the best romantic drama comedy I've seen this year. Rest assured, this film will leave you a big smile on your face the moment it ends. Very highly recommended. Two Thumbs up!
http://yjcool.blogspot.com/2014/08/movie-review-teachers-diary.html
