In this debut from filmmaker Koya Kamura, a young woman struggling to claim her identity and independence has her routine disrupted when a French artist checks into the small guesthouse in snowy Sokcho where she works.
In the bitter winter months, Soo-Ha (Bella Kim) lives a peaceful but dreary existence in the seaside tourist village of Sokcho, in South Korea. But all that is disrupted by the appearance of an eccentric middle-aged French artist, Yan Kerrand (Roschdy Zem, Other People’s Children, TIFF ’22), at the lodging house where she works. He is unaware that his presence opens up past wounds for the young woman, whose French father left her mother before she was born.
Kerrand, thirsty for new inspiration for his next piece, and Soo-Ha, looking to fill a void in her life, soon embark on a sightseeing journey. Amidst their travels, Soo-Ha attempts to unpack her mother’s narrative of abandonment and her own feelings as an outsider, and finds with Kerrand a fragile bond, one that threatens to disintegrate when spring inevitably arrives.
Masterfully blending animation and live action, director Koya Kamura’s feature debut is an unconventional love story. It is also a search for identity and an exploration of the scars of absence, manifest in the experiences of transient foreign workers, navigated by passing-through tourists who find unexpected connections, and endured by a divided nation itself.
Breakout actor Kim and the always-compelling Zem melt the coldness of the winter in Sokcho with memorable performances and a rapport that is both warm and bristling with an indeterminate tension.
ROBYN CITIZEN
Content advisory: nudity, sexual innuendo
Screenings
Scotiabank 1
TIFF Lightbox 3
Scotiabank 11
Scotiabank 8
Scotiabank 10