Twenty

Three friends turn twenty. Chi-ho has done nothing since school; his days are empty and his only concern is women. Dong-woo wants to draw comics but his family is in debt and he has to work. Kyung-jae has got into university; he is successful, orderly and takes pleasure in nothing. The three see each other constantly and tell each other nothing. Across a year their lives go in separate directions: work, love, military service and money. Then one night they all gather in the same place. Lee Byeong-heon writes and directs. Kim Woo-bin, Lee Jun-ho, Kang Ha-neul and Jung So-min are in the cast. It is a Korean production. The film took a strong result at the Korean box office. Its form is episodic; three strands proceed in parallel and cross rarely. The humour rests on dialogue; the director became known for that style and kept it in later films. The narrative shows twenty not as a beginning but as an uncertainty; none of the three knows what he wants. The character Kim Woo-bin plays is not shown as likeable and the narrative does not correct him. Its last section is a fight and joins the three strands. Its limit is structure; the narrative is long, some jokes crude and the women thinly written. Who it is for: viewers who like Korean comedy and stories of the young. Who it is not for: it is scattered, the humour crude, and the characters shallow.