A Moment to Remember - Ending Explained

The film's ultimate tragedy is not just Su-jin's forgetting, but the specific loss of the present. In a key scene, Su-jin calls Chul-soo by her ex-boyfriend's name, demonstrating that as her short-term memory fails, she is receding into a past where Chul-soo does not exist. The ending provides a bittersweet resolution: Chul-soo gathers all the people from her past and recreates their first meeting in the convenience store. Su-jin has a fleeting moment of clarity, recognizing him and saying 'I love you' for the first time in the film. However, this is immediately followed by a drive into the sunset, signifying that while they have found a 'moment to remember,' the inevitable night of her total forgetting is still coming. The 'happy' ending is actually a loop of perpetual, temporary recovery.

While most viewers see the film as a straightforward tragedy, some critics argue for a Merciful Release interpretation. In this view, Su-jin's memory loss eventually frees her from the heavy social burdens and past traumas (her affair, her family's pressure), leaving her in a state of 'pure' being. Another interpretation focuses on the Cyclical Ending: the final scene in the convenience store can be read as a temporary victory or a tragic delusion—a 'moment' that they will have to endlessly repeat to maintain their bond, suggesting that their love is now a performance rather than a lived reality.