[Sinema 1 after every scene] The movie "You've Got Mail"
"You've Got Mail" (1998) is a story about a large company's invasion of alley areas. When a chain-type bookstore called "Fox & Sons" run by Joe Fox (Tom Hanks) enters New York, the "street corner bookstore," which has been a local fixture for a long time, is threatened. Kelly (Meck Ryan), the head of a street corner bookstore, becomes the vanguard of the local bookstore protection movement and frequently bumps into President Joe Fox, leaving unswashed wounds to each other. They actually develop love online through e-mails without knowing each other. These mixed relationships online and offline are the driving force behind the tension throughout the two hours of the movie.
It makes me sad to see Kelly, the owner of an alley bookstore, who is pushed out of the price competition. However, some audiences have pointed out that Kelly's behavior was contradictory. Kelly is angry at the conglomerate's monopoly, and he actually enjoys Starbucks, not coffee at a small cafe in the neighborhood.
It shows the connection of capitalist society, whether or not the director intended it. In capitalism, our consumption is so multi-layered that it is difficult to maintain consistency. Watching this movie today, let's look at various economic points, such as why Starbucks appeared as a major place for two men and women to develop love, and what cafes will appear in the background instead of Starbucks if this work is retaken now.
Let's look at the plot first. Joe Fox and Kelly send and receive e-mails online, using the IDs 'New York 152' and 'shop girl', respectively.
In 1998, when the movie was released, the online access process was much more cumbersome because the high-speed LAN was not installed as it is now. I had to connect through a modem that made a loud noise when connecting. I couldn't even use my home phone while using the Internet.
Even after such a complicated procedure, the reason why the two want to use the Internet is because they want to hear the words "You've got a mail," in other words, "I've got a mail." They eagerly waited for each other's e-mails that they didn't even know their faces. The two men and women were a new generation who were active in dating through new methods.
The two men and women do not know the other person's real appearance in the real world, but sometimes they pass each other at various food and beverage businesses and distribution facilities. This is a scene that shows that New York is a consumer society. Regardless of occupation, class, or race, in New York, anyone is connected by consumption.
Starbucks is a representative facility. The two men and women often take out coffee at Starbucks, which is a tool that shows how active they were in the news. At that time, drinking coffee at Starbucks was evaluated as a "new generation's thing" as much as email communication.
Joe Fox said: 'Starbucks is for people with decisiveness. Even they try to win the heart of a "shop girl" who doesn't even know her face by tactfully writing in an e-mail that "makes me choose sizes like short, tall, venti, decaffeinated and latte" to buy a cup of coffee.
The reason why this could act as a "plitting" was because Starbucks was new in New York at the time. The first Starbucks appeared in New York in 1994, just four years before the movie was released. Since then, the number of stores has increased sharply due to explosive attention.
A column in the 'New Yorker' in 1995, a year after the first store opened, shows that the promise of "meet at Starbucks" is no longer possible. In the past, it was as simple as asking to meet in front of the Statue of Liberty, but 50 Starbucks were created in a short period of time, making such an appointment impossible.
Thirty years later, New York is as iconic as Seattle for Starbucks. In 2018, a large reserve roastery with only six in the world opened in Chelsea, New York.
If 'You've Got Mail' is filmed again in 2025, the settings in the movie are likely to change a lot. First of all, Starbucks will be difficult to establish as a tool for two men and women to show off each other's trendiness. This is because once trends become routine, and it is the fate of all trends that daily life becomes boring. With Starbucks, which has already become a routine, it will take much more consideration for Joe Fox to make fresh jokes.
Given the freshness of the ingredients, wouldn't Louis Xing Coffee fill Starbucks' seats. Louising Coffee is a brand that is just starting to get hot in New York. Chinese native coffee brand Luixing Coffee started opening two stores in New York in June this year and increased the number of stores to five as of mid-September.
There is no cashier in the Louis Xing Coffee store, and customers only order through a dedicated mobile app. On the surface, the price of drinks is not much different from Starbucks. However, the app is currently offering 30-50% discount coupons in large quantities. This is why when the first store in New York was opened, the door was crowded.
In the U.S., the status of "cost-effectiveness coffee" has increased as inflation threatens the situation of citizens' wallets. In addition, unlike Starbucks, which focuses on building intimacy with customers through small talk, Louising Coffee pursues extreme efficiency, which appeals to a new generation that considers practicality.
Fox & Sons, run by Fox, is modeled on Barnes & Noble, an American bookstore. It is a chain-type bookstore that has captured consumers' hearts by selling books 40% cheaper than the regular price in the United States and introducing a large space where they can read books comfortably. With the advent of Barnes & Noble, the number of independent bookstores in the United States has nearly halved in the five years since 1995. The movie contains a bitter look at the reality that independent bookstores are becoming more difficult.
Therefore, some audiences evaluate Kelly as a contradictory character. How can you enjoy going to Starbucks, a chain-type cafe, instead of a local coffee shop while fighting a chain-type bookstore on behalf of a small bookstore. Perhaps the writer's thinking didn't reach that far. At that time, Starbucks might have been a growing company, but it may have been less criticized because it was before it achieved a great empire as it is now.
After all, the film shows that it is almost impossible to maintain consistency in consumption in a modern capitalist society, regardless of its original intentions. This is a phenomenon that is frequently observed in any country. A person who boycotts certain products faces criticism from the opposition as he sees them consume against his campaign in everyday life.
The two men and women in "You've Got Mail" combine as lovers even though they hurt each other's souls deep. This is because I learned the other person's sincerity through communication through e-mail. They were two people who thought they were standing on the other side completely, but in reality, they had a lot in common. This part reflected the belief that we could understand each other better when we communicated without excluding everything else's job, educational background, and appearance. That may be too naive a belief.
However, there is a clear message to modern people who judge based only on someone's background. We can be tempted to demonize others and keep them out of the public sphere, but it could end up being a trap for us. This is because there are more connections and commonalities between him and you than you think. Not ruling him out easily could be another way to protect you.