My Brother

Two brothers grow up in Korea in the seventies. Sung-hyun was born with a cleft lip; he is quiet, works hard, and wants to go on studying. Jong-hyun fights, is thrown out of school, and makes room for himself on the street. Their mother is raising the two of them alone. The brothers love each other but never say it; every conversation between them turns into a fight, and neither knows what the other is carrying. Ahn Kwon-tae's film sits right at the centre of the Korean melodrama mould: a poor family, a mother who sacrifices, two brothers who cannot say a kind word. Won Bin and Shin Ha-kyun have the leads and the balance between them carries the film. The story also keeps seventies Korea in the background; school, the army and the street are the three roads in front of the same boy. A hundred and twelve minutes. The film does not stint on feeling and does not try to hide that.