General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

If the Sun Rose in the West

If the Sun Rose in the West (Korean: 해가 서쪽에서 뜬다면; also translated as If the Sun Rises in the West) is a 1998 South Korean romance drama film directed by Lee Eun, about a traffic policeman who becomes a baseball umpire and his first love, who grows into a top star actress. It was Lee Eun's commercial directorial debut and was released in South Korea on December 19, 1998.¹

Key fact	Detail
Korean title	해가 서쪽에서 뜬다면¹
Director / writer	Lee Eun (directorial debut); screenplay by Kim Hyun-suk¹
Cast	Im Chang-jung (Kim Beom-su), Ko So-young (Nam Hyun-ju / Yoo Ha-rin), Cha Seung-won (Byun Ji-min)²
Production	Myung Films; running time 100 minutes; rated 15+ in Korea¹
Theme song	Cliff Richard's "Early in the Morning," which became popular in Korea after the film's release³

Spoilers

Plot

Beom-su (Im Chang-jung) is a traffic control policeman doing his conscripted police service who dreams of becoming a professional baseball umpire. He meets Hyun-ju (Ko So-young), a theater student who aspires to be an actress, when she crashes her car into a roadside tree while driving without a license; instead of issuing her a ticket, he gives her driving lessons.⁴^•⁵

The two grow close and exchange letters while sharing their ambitions. When Beom-su confesses his love, Hyun-ju turns him down and leaves to study abroad.⁴ Years later, Beom-su has achieved his dream of becoming an umpire, while Hyun-ju, under the stage name Yoo Ha-rin, has become a top star. She is being courted by Byun Ji-min (Cha Seung-won), the president of a ramen company, but she spots Beom-su by chance during a televised baseball broadcast and seeks him out.⁴^•⁵

Sources differ on one plot detail: the Korean Film Archive synopsis and JustWatch say the couple exchanged 37 letters,⁴ while a JoongAng Ilbo television listing says 47.³

Production

The film was produced by Myung Films, the company Lee Eun founded in the 1990s with his wife, producer Shim Jae-myung.⁶ Lee Eun, born in 1961 and a graduate of Chung-Ang University's theater and film program, had been a central figure in the 1980s independent film movement group Jangsangotmae, making labor-themed independent films such as Oh! Dreamland (1989), before entering commercial cinema.⁶

The screenplay was written by Kim Hyun-suk, who had debuted the previous year with YMCA Baseball Team.³ The scenario was planned from its first draft around the Haitai Tigers professional club; Myung Films said it had cooperated with the club for two years before production, filming real game footage, and that real baseball figures would appear in cameo roles, including Haitai Tigers manager Kim Eung-yong, coach Kim Sung-han, and KBS commentator Ha Il-sung.⁷ Shooting ran from a crank-in on August 4 to about 30 shooting days ending October 17, 1998.⁷

For Cha Seung-won, then a fashion and commercial model, the film was his screen debut; he played the ramen company president who pursues Hyun-ju.⁸^•⁶ The soundtrack album, released through EMI Korea, included Cliff Richard's "Early in the Morning" as the main theme alongside tracks by Big Demon, Helen Shapiro, the Ventures, Roy Orbison, and Ian Hunter, with music direction by Cho Young-wuk, who had also worked on The Contact.⁹

Reception

The film drew 145,752 admissions in Seoul, and one retrospective account describes it as not having been a big commercial success.¹⁰ A JoongAng Ilbo retrospective wrote that the film "was not a great success" but that Im Chang-jung's sincere acting was well received.³ The theme song, Cliff Richard's "Early in the Morning," became widely popular in Korea at the time of release.³

Andrew Saroch of Far East Films compared the film favorably to Richard Curtis's Notting Hill, writing that it "accomplishes its modest directives and creates two characters we quickly warm to throughout their moments together," and praised Ko So-young for lending her character "some much needed humanity." A contemporary Chosun Ilbo review called it a gender-reversed Cinderella fantasy sold "like a fancy goods item," judging it clean and free of glaring flaws while noting its heavy use of coincidence.¹¹ A 1998 ET News review described it as Lee Eun's debut as a director, noting that he had previously entered institutional cinema as a producer, and credited the umpire protagonist with giving the familiar fantasy a fresh professional detail.¹²

Korean film scholarship has placed the film among late-1990s works that straddle the boundary between romantic comedy and melodrama, alongside The Man with the Flower (1997) and Art Museum by the Zoo (1998).¹³

Legacy

The film has remained available in South Korea, streaming on wavve, Watcha, and TVING as of recent listings.⁴ The Korean Film Archive screened it in 2015 as part of a baseball-themed program, "Everyone Plays Baseball in Autumn."⁵ Lee Eun and Myung Films went on to produce major Korean commercial successes including The Contact and Joint Security Area.⁶

References

If the sun rises in the West (1998), Korea Film / Filmmakers database
해가 서쪽에서 뜬다면 상세정보, Cine21
[[토요 영화] MBC '해가 서쪽에서 뜬다면' 外, JoongAng Ilbo](https://www.joongang.co.kr/article/178272)
해가 서쪽에서 뜬다면 영화 스트리밍으로 보기, JustWatch
해가 서쪽에서 뜬다면, Korean Film Archive (KOFA) program page
'해가 서쪽에서 뜬다면' 임창정 고소영, 야구심판과 톱스타의 로맨스, Liveen
[[추억의 스페셜] 천하무적 야구단 임창정의 '야구 영화' (1998 Baseball Korea interview)](https://bksports.tistory.com/entry/%EC%B6%94%EC%96%B5%EC%9D%98-%EC%8A%A4%ED%8E%98%EC%85%9C-%EC%B2%9C%ED%95%98%EB%AC%B4%EC%A0%81-%EC%95%BC%EA%B5%AC%EB%8B%A8-%EC%9E%84%EC%B0%BD%EC%A0%95%EC%9D%98-%EC%95%BC%EA%B5%AC-%EC%98%81%ED%99%94)
모델 차승원 영화 '해가 서쪽에서 뜬다면' 출연, Maeil Business Newspaper
영화 "해가 서쪽에서 뜬다면" OST음반 발매, ET News
해가 서쪽에서 뜬다면, 고소영 임창정 그리고 차승원, jennablog
[[새영화] 야구심판과 여배우의 사랑 `해가 서쪽에서…', Chosun Ilbo](https://www.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/1998/12/10/1998121070313.html)
<스크린 관람석> 해가 서쪽에서 뜬다면, ET News
로맨틱 코미디, 깡패영화에서 남성 멜로드라마로 1992~2000, 비교문화연구 제65집

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026