The Hollywood Reporter by Clarence Tsui
An impressive debut driven by a timeline-blurring narrative and nuanced performances.
✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
Korea · 2014
Rated R · 1h 52m
Director Lee Su-jin
Starring Chun Woo-hee, Jung In-sun, Kim So-young, Lee Young-lan
Genre Drama
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After a life-changing incident, Gong-ju is given no choice but to transfer to a new high school. Alone in an unfamiliar place far away from her family, the teenager retreats into herself for reasons no one at the new school understands. Through flashbacks, Gong-ju's heartbreaking past gradually unfolds.
The Hollywood Reporter by Clarence Tsui
An impressive debut driven by a timeline-blurring narrative and nuanced performances.
The cumulative impact of the delayed story revelations and Chun's startling vulnerability is both an elegant gut-punch and a furious indictment of a society that treats its victims with inexcusable aggression and hostility.
For some time, the pic holds interest while constantly frustrating curiosity with the way it parses out information, but soon after the midway point the game becomes tedious, and attention slackens considerably even as Gong-ju’s ordeal becomes clear.
The New York Times by Jeannette Catsoulis
Swiveling from past to present and back again, the writer and director, Lee Su-jin, drops ominous clues — a bruised boy; a mysterious infection — that only slowly coalesce into a larger tragedy.
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