COTTON CANDY COMPLICATIONS

THE column this week comes with a statutory warning: Hong Ji-young's New Year Blues is not a recommendation for the die-hard cinephiles.

- NAMRATA JOSHI

It is an effort to try and be in tune with the celebratory spirit of the moment, as 2025 makes way for 2026. So, if you are not partying, feeling lonely or gloomy, you could try a shot of New Year Blues with some hot chocolate for accompaniment, preferably with a helping of marshmallows. In a landscape dominated by the US and UK, New Year Blues is one of the few contemporary international holiday flicks, including Farah Khan's ho-hum Happy New Year. Set during seven snowy days from Christmas to New Year's Eve, it's about the ups and downs in the love life of four couples, who are linked to each other, in a roundabout way, through the common worlds they inhabit—snowboarding, tourism, a greenhouse, and the civil service office.

Things are set in motion with Rae-hwan (Teo Yoo), a physically challenged para snowboarding champion, proposing to the wind beneath his wings, his horticulturist girlfriend Oh-wol (Choo Soo-young). One of Oh-wol's workers, Yong-mi's (Yeom Hye-ran) brother, a travel agent, Yong-chan (Lee Dwong-hwi), is also all set to marry his Chinese girlfriend, Yaolin (Chen Duling).