House of Hummingbird
Original title: Beol-sae
2019 | 139 minutes | South Korea, USA
Director: Bora Kim
Writer: Bora Kim
Language: Korean
Berlin International Film Festival 2019 (Grand Prix Generation 14Plus)
Busan International Film Festival 2018 (KNN Award, NEPAC Award)
Istanbul Film Festival 2019 (Grand Jury Prize)
Tribeca Film Festival 2019 (Best International Narrative Feature Award, Best Actress in an International Narrative Feature Film Award for Ji-hu Park, Best Cinematography Award for Kang Gook-hyun)
Set in 1994 in Seoul, House Of Hummingbird is an astute, observant, and touching coming-of-age drama unfolding against a backdrop of social and economic change in South Korea. The film revolves around a quietly intelligent 14 year-old eighth grader named Eunhee (Ji-hu Park). Struggling to earn passing grades and having to endure verbal and even physical abuse at home, Eunhee spends her time searching for meaning in the friendships of her peers, in occasionally shoplifting, and in raucous karaoke bars.
But her life really begins to transform itself when she is obliged to study Chinese in ‘cram school’ with a worldly, elegant teacher, a woman named Yongji. Through her studies and conversations with Yongji after class, Eunhee begins to learn more about the world, about herself, and about being a woman in Korean society in a time of change.
In this assured feature debut, promising director Bora Kim examines, with intelligence and sensitivity, the joys, pains, and complexities of becoming an adult. She is a filmmaker with a very bright future. House of Hummingbird won the Grand Prix for Best Feature Film at the 69th Berlin International Film Festival Generation 14plus, and won NETPAC and Audience awards at the 23rd Busan International Film Festival. As this film demonstrates so engagingly, there’s more to contemporary Korean cinema than Parasite.
- Tom McSorley
Preceded by the short film
Measure
Nine year old Shane seems to be wandering the streets of Toronto alone, but he is on a secret mission that is too important to fail. He has one last thing to do before his mother finds out that he’s been suspended from school.
Screening ahead of House of Hummingbird, Measure places the same trust in a young protagonist to carry the audience through an emotionally demanding family drama.