Little Prince (Korean Movie)

Description: Regret is the driving emotion behind “The Little Prince,” director Choi Jong-hyeon’s debut feature, loosely inspired by Antoine de Saint-Exupery’s most famous novella known for the wise-cracking fox who says, “It is the time you have spent with your rose that makes your rose so important.” The Korean movie puts a reverse spin on the line: a sound-effects technician Jong-cheol does NOT spend time with his family — a fatal mistake that he deeply and constantly regrets. The healing process begins when he comes across a pure-hearted child, modeled after the world-renowned French story. But it is a bit of a stretch to compare Jong-cheol’s encounter with the boy with the one in the original “The Little Prince.” After all, the Korean movie does not feature the rose the Little Prince really truly loved or the fox he famously tamed. Jong-cheol is no pilot, either. But the overall plot — an adult learning something from an innocent kid — is roughly in the same category of a fable rich in symbolism. In the movie to be released on Thursday, an urban fable begins with Jong-cheol’s self-contradicting life. He makes a living producing various sound effects for movies; he juggles different gadgets and props to create sound that is more realistic than, well, natural sound.