Kim Ji-young: Born 1982

Kim Ji-young is in her thirties; she has left her job, has a child and spends her whole day at home. One day she begins speaking as somebody else: in her mother's voice, in the voice of a friend who died. She does not remember doing it. Her husband Dae-hyun notices and cannot tell her. The narrative goes back through her life: school, a promotion at work, the end of a career after childbirth, and the ordinary distinctions inside a family. Kim Do-young directs. Jung Yu-mi plays Ji-young and Gong Yoo plays her husband. The source is Cho Nam-joo's novel. The book caused a large argument in South Korea. It sold over a million copies, was spoken of alongside the women's movement, and actresses and singers who said they had read it were attacked online. The same reaction came when the film was announced. The method is to show nothing extraordinary. Everything that happens to Ji-young is ordinary: a remark, a look, a decision about promotion. The film accumulates them and shows what the sum does. The husband avoids the type; he is not a bad man, and precisely for that reason he can change nothing. It was a large commercial success in Korea and Jung Yu-mi won awards for her performance. Who it is for: viewers who follow Korean social drama and films centred on women's experience. Who it is not for: little happens, the pace is slow, and the narrative deliberately offers no resolution.