On the Border

This is a great film that leaves much more traces in our soul with its realistic expression, cinematography and acting management. The way to achieve his dreams is beyond the one-step further, but the challenges are much more for the young boy. The director does this in a very striking and impressive way.

A Korean teen and his missing father. The boy meets a woman. It's the border between a China town and the Korean. His father leaves the motorcycle store he runs, for unknown reason. Interweaving handycam-like realism and stylish, atmospheric cinematography, the film portraits the a trip of desire and unlikely companion. When you find something lost at a time, there could be a world you never knew you would pursuit otherwise.

There is a moment in On The Border where the boy and the girl share their desire to go South Korea. His purposes are different for her is only subtle, aesthetic, for him is life. Surprising the delicate care that Wei Shujun manages the story, showing with a laconic look and silently building the routine of this young man who yearns to leave his filthy everyday life and replace it with that world full of neon lights that promises Korea. A dream that determines his life, which conditions his way of relating to others and Shujun manages to convey the weight of this desire.

Very simple story with a very strong and deep concepts. On The Border is really the story of our real life, no exaggeration, no extra dramatic points, no complexity but a simple narration of our real life to stay hopeful despite of troubles and failures. Its simplicity in storytelling never spoils its powerful concept and meaning which is obvious at the final look of the boy on the border line. He has no other choice but to get back to first square and try to cross it later. He wont give up, since he has proven himself as a guy who is strong enough to cross the border when he decided to study in S.Korea instead of China, when he began to resist against his father.

This movie is amazing and its a map to our soul, our silences and our dreams. Poetry, sensibility and an existencial inquiry.

What does freedom mean? Can we as humans go wherever we want to? Money, power and control... are threating things to our freedom as humans?

10/10