My Beautiful Girl, Mari

Nam-woo is a grown man, and news of an old friend sends him back to his childhood. He grew up in a small town by the sea. His father had died, his mother was about to marry again, and his closest friend Jun-ho was moving away. In an abandoned lighthouse he finds a marble that glows. When he looks into the marble it opens onto a white world; there is a girl called Mari there and a flying, furry creature. Lee Sung-gang's film took the Grand Prix at Annecy in 2002, the first Korean production to win it. It did no business at home. The drawing is pastel and soft; there is little movement and a lot of empty space. The fantasy sections look like an escape, but what the film is really about is the moment childhood ends: a friend leaving, a household coming apart, and no words available for either. Eighty-six minutes.