20th Century Girl

In 1999, seventeen-year-old Bo-ra promises her best friend Yeon-du, who is going abroad for heart surgery, that she will watch the boy Yeon-du likes and report back on everything. While she is watching, Bo-ra falls for the wrong boy. Bang Woo-ri's film is meticulous about the period: digital cameras, cassettes and the Korean pop culture of the moment are not background but part of the plot. Kim You-jung plays Bo-ra, and that performance is what critics agreed on, described as convincing and delightful. Netflix released it on 21 October 2022 and it climbed quickly, reaching second on the global non-English film chart with eight million hours viewed and later fifth overall. Rotten Tomatoes sits at 86 percent from seven reviews. Those same critics noted that despite a two-hour runtime it leaves some key characters surprisingly unexplored. Rolling Stone India and Entertainment Weekly put it on their year-end lists. Who it is for: viewers who like Korean teen melodrama and nineties nostalgia. Who it is not for: anyone who resents being worked on. The last twenty minutes are openly built to make you cry.