Beolsae

"Among all the people you know, how many really understand what's going on inside you?"

House of Hummingbird is a bleak but beautifully told story of a girl drowning in childhood neglect who learns how to live by and for herself as she is confronted with the true transience and fragility of the bridges that connect us with others. Set in 1994 Seoul, the film is a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age of both the director and her country.

The few melodramatic steps taken by the script are counterbalanced by how it avoids being overly cinematic; you forget you are watching a film. It's this distinction that spares it from a comparison to Eighth Grade. Where Bo Burnham crafted an expressive, modern, and quintessentially teenage coming-of-age, Bora Kim gives us a muted and nuanced story of an ageless soul coming to terms with a lonely existence. The nature of Eunhee's relationships with her Chinese teacher and one of her classmates bears a closer resemblance to Lost in Translation. While the themes of how we define family and fending for ourselves are both reminiscent of the 2018 Cannes darling Shoplifters.

At karaoke, Eunhee sings into the mic:

🎶 "Love is like glass. It shines so beautifully but breaks so easily. And how difficult it is now as I deal with the pieces..." 🎶

The sad notes of the film are hard-hitting, but like her teacher says when Eunhee asks about the residents protesting relocation, "Don't pity them. We don't really know their lives." And so are we reminded as such regarding the central character.

The film is framed from her perspective, letting us into this world only so far as Eunhee understands it. Free of stereotypes and cliches, the film takes us so far into the mental seclusion of adolescence, right to the home of internal angst--to the point where we are offended on behalf of Eunhee when someone says to her, "You only think about yourself..." It's only then we surface from the depths of her perspective.

House of Hummingbird is a true gem of a film. With the exception of an amateurish plot point written into the end, the film is perfect. Biggest surprise of the festival so far. .

This reminds me of me when I was young, always looking for love through the eyes of someone else, and thinking I wasn't worth anything.

I had lots of time to wonder and be around different people in my lifetime and this movie even though it's Asian culture, and I actually remember when the bridge collapsed cuz I kept up on Asian culture back then even in 1990s, that was such a tragic thing to happen, that in their president had died.

There are times when this movie was kind of boring because it doesn't explain a lot of stuff it just follows this family around I know the main character is the young girl there's lots of facial expressions and I'm noticing that more when I watch pieces like this but there need is be some kind of information for us people who I mean I get facial expressions but there's missing pieces is what I'm saying I still love the movie because of the point it was trying to make without me spoiling anything it was really good I washed it till the end it was really long though that's the other thing it needed to be a little shorter and I didn't quite like the ending That's just my opinion though it's still was a really good movie, well written.

The society pressures you to stay in the straight line. You need to be a good student. You should listen to your older siblings. Take beating as approved if you are just a daughter in a family. However, Life is not a straight line. This is a story about a teenager girl finding her way out of adventerous and sometimes confusing maze called life.

Set in 1994, the film focuses on a 14 year old girl struggling with family and school, while trying to find her identity, which is something we all go through at that age, I guess. There were a few subject matters that were very well tackled in the film, considering the ages of the young actors, and more importantly the time period the film is supposed to be based on. Kids are usually very good in dramas, so there were no surprises in terms of their performances. There's a major event in the film that occurred in the mid 90s, which most foreigners probably aren't aware of, and which answers the question as to why the film was set in that period.

The only qualm I had with this film was its pace. Some scenes, in an effort to come across as poetic, just dragged on a tad bit.

Accurately represented conflicts between a Korean school girl and ordinary family in Gangnam district in 1994.

Korean family living in the same format of house as others. The purpose of children's life is captivated in school and cram school to be enrolled in the top university. Not much conversation between parents and children apart from school record. Therefore life in children is no fun at all.

Narrated well about how the schoolgirl tried to find the purpose of life and small fun things from the boring but unfair life.