Ein ganz neues Leben

When I sat down here in 2022 to watch the 2009 South Korean drama "Yeo-haeng-ja" (aka "A Brand New Life"), then I had never heard about the movie before. So writer and director Ounie Lecomte had every opportunity to bedazzle and entertain me.

While I have no idea what life in an orphanage would be like in the 1970s South Korean, then I will say that writer and director Ounie Lecomte definitely managed to put together a rather emotional and beautiful movie here with "Yeo-haeng-ja".

But it was not only the writing and the storyline that made "Yeo-haeng-ja" a good movie. No, it was also very much because of some really amazing acting performances, especially by Kim Sae-Ron, Do Yeon Park and Ko Asung.

It should be noted that "Yeo-haeng-ja" is a slow paced movie, even for a drama. So it is a movie that might not find a base with just anyone in the audience, as it requires a particular mindset and mood to delve into the movie and enjoy it. There is just a sense of realism and sadness about the movie that permeates the entire movie, and it does creep in under the skin.

I will say, though, that I was adequately entertained by "Yeo-haeng-ja". However, it is not a movie that I will ever return to watch a second time around, as the storyline just doesn't have the contents to support a second viewing.

My rating of "Yeo-haeng-ja" lands on a six out of ten stars.

"..Life in the orphanage, seen through the eyes of a child.."

A Brand New Life Story of a little girl, in a sudden, abandoned by her father in the orphanage.. Living her life in the orphanage and venturing herself to a great unknown, a new family, hence A Brand New Life..

The film is based on the experiences of the director, an ethnic Korean who was adopted by a French couple in the 1970s..

A beautifully made movie.. An 8 of 10 stars from me..

In one review there is a comment to the effect of how sad it is that Koreans still dump unwanted children.

That person hasn't lived in a big enough world. Children worldwide, no matter which nation, suffer many types of abandonment and betrayal from those they consider to be their family, loved ones, carers.

And this is one type of story of such abandonment.

Sent to live in an orphanage with a view toward being adopted to a new family, most likely overseas into an entirely different culture, a little girl believes her father will always come back for her. But as so often happens and in some nations, yes, more than others, she is the unwanted child, the older child from another mother - and also a female, and father now has a new wife and a new baby - could I venture to guess, a boy?

The strikingly excellent acting from the young actress in the lead makes you believe you are seeing all those emotions and that searing pain of abandonment, from endless tears, disbelief, rage in reality, not just a movie.

She fights for herself, though. She doesn't give up although it appears she will. But from any child where the pain of abandonment and betrayal from those who you entrust to love and care for you, this film will resonate and possibly bring forward some real anxiety and memories that are unwanted. An excellent film very well done.

Life can appear very strange, when no-one is there to explain it. Especially when you're a child and you have plenty of questions. This is a big question which started the day when a father, with no explanations left his daughter at an orphanage. A Brand New Life takes its spectator to childhood - to a time when we asked many things and perhaps got no answers and no explanations why things happen exactly this way. Film is through and through seen from the eyes of a child, but brought to it's richness with the help of a wonderful script and skillful camera, allowing its spectator to put aside for a while his adult point of view and just observe, and try to understand. This is the story of a little girl, Jinhee, played marvelously by Mademoiselle Sae Ron Kim. She poses questions, but there never comes an honest answer why her life has turned out like this.

A Brand New Life achieves a perfect harmony, one element underlines the other one. The long takes allow the spectator to grasp, how long the time in orphanage seemed for Jinhee, the relatively small amounts of dialogs depicts the introvert child, whose emotions break out through some furious actions. The gray tone palette which en-tours the setting of the orphanage shows very understandable the sadness of this place.

Film touches not only an auto-biographical story, but the sad truth of life – we all know that there are thousands of places like this around the world. And there are thousands of children who, perhaps, have mastered this tragicomic show for the visitors, the potential new families.

In conclusion I'd like to say that this is a very daring film, knowing that this was a true story and a true childhood, perhaps lived through second by second as we see it on the screen. I must say that it's a brave choice to put a story like this on the screen. But its greatest value is the absence of a pathos and absence of a depiction the children as a victims of the cruelty of life. A Brand New Life is hope and search for the answers through and through it.

One of the greatest fears of childhood is being abandoned by your parents and left to face the world alone. In A Brand New Life, winner of Best Asian Film Award at the Tokyo International Film Festival, French director Ounie Lecomte recalls her childhood in South Korea with this sensitively rendered and touching story of a young girl who was left by her father in an all-girls Catholic orphanage to be placed for adoption. Set in Seoul in 1975, nine-year-old Jin-hee, superbly performed by Kim Sae-rom, does not suspect anything out of the ordinary after spending a day with her father (Sol Kyung-gu) buying new clothes, going out to dinner, and taking a ride together on his bicycle.

When Jin-hee is suddenly dropped off the next day at an orphanage just after her father bought her a cake that she picked out, she is bewildered but believes that her father will return to bring her home. Left to adjust to a strange new environment, however, she is full of anger. Though she is treated well by the nuns and the other children, she refuses to comply with the rules and resists the requests of sister Bomo (Park Myeong-shin), the woman who runs the orphanage. Refusing to speak, eat or change clothes, Jin-hee pleads with the director Koo (Oh Man-seok) to allow her to call her father but he is unable to find him. Planning to escape, she spends the night outside in the cold.

When she decides to return, she begins to reluctantly accept that her father will not return and that she will sooner or later be placed for adoption, perhaps with a family from another country. Fortunately, she finds a friend in 11-year-old Sook-hee (Park Do-yeon), a bright and outgoing girl who has learned to say the right things to prospective parents, but often causes trouble with the nuns. The two girls practice English together, play card games, sneak extra pieces of cake for each other, and care for a sick bird. Sook-hee tells her that she has started to have her period but she must keep it a secret. They talk about another girl Yeshin (Ko Ah-sung) who is depressed by a letter she receives from a boy (Mun Hack-jin) that she has a crush on.

Even though she is able to bond with Sook-hee, Jin-hee remains distressed about the lies her father told her, taking out her frustration by destroying Christmas dolls given to children as gifts, and refusing to answer questions at a meeting with perspective parents. A Brand New Life involves the heart but refuses to pull out all the dramatic stops to ratchet up the tears. Though its theme is downbeat, it is not a depressing film because the children are shown as having amazing strength and resilience. When each girl leaves with a new family and the remaining children sing "Auld Lang Syne," they are not just saying goodbye and lamenting the old times, but designing a brand new life for their friend and voicing hope as well for their own future.