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The Butterfly
Tornado Alley
Childhood without the rose colored glasses
Director Yoon Ga Eun shared the good, the bad, and the cruel in The World of Us. The story was shown through 10-year-old Seon’s eyes. When her dad proclaimed, “What could be wrong with kids? They just go to school, study, and play with friends,” it was clear he had blocked out all memories of being a child.
Seon comes from a poor family where both of her parents work. She is often in charge of her energetic little brother Yoon, who is always getting into fights with his friend Yuen. Deemed an outcast by Bo Ra, the queen bee of her class, Seon has no friends and is always the last kid to get picked during dodgeball. Her fate seems to change when Ji Ah moves to town at the beginning of summer vacation and the two hit it off. Seon embraces life in the warm summer days with her new friend walking, playing, eating, and sharing secrets. Summer can’t last forever and soon Bo Ra sets her eyes on adding Ji Ah to her hive.
Seon’s joy and desolation were on full display in young actress Choi Soo In’s face. The isolation of being deemed less than was excruciating. Seon’s goodhearted, but clueless mother thought the girls in class were her friends, never knowing the little darlings made her daughter’s life hell every day at school. When Seon and Ji Ah had a falling out, neither behaved perfectly, both making terrible mistakes. Sympathetically, both made their mistakes out of a desire to not be rejected and left unprotected on the fringe. Ji Ah had been largely abandoned by her mother and father which caused resentment toward Seon. Seon’s family struggled financially but Seon and her mother had a warm, close relationship. Director Yoon showed the vulnerability in the girls and also Seon’s strength as she attempted to find out how things went wrong so quickly. Working out human relationships in the crucible of a classroom was a daunting task. Yoon Ga Eun showed Seon’s journey with a light hand, never resorting to the over-the-top bullying in so many Kdramas. Yet also showing that words can be as sharp as a razor, especially in one raw scene involving colored pencils.
The World of Us was a claustrophobic world of dreams and nightmares as Seon and Ji Ah navigated the perilous path of growing up even in the innocence of childhood. The film was not all conflict, scenes of the girls sharing a skillet of kimchi fried rice, dyeing their nails, or happily playing in the water demonstrated the sheer joy of new friendship. The two often forged toward the unknown separately as they gradually and painfully learned the process of making friends and which friendships were worth the effort and didn’t require selling one’s soul. The World of Us was an honest trip into childhood and one worth taking.
2 August 2024
Seon comes from a poor family where both of her parents work. She is often in charge of her energetic little brother Yoon, who is always getting into fights with his friend Yuen. Deemed an outcast by Bo Ra, the queen bee of her class, Seon has no friends and is always the last kid to get picked during dodgeball. Her fate seems to change when Ji Ah moves to town at the beginning of summer vacation and the two hit it off. Seon embraces life in the warm summer days with her new friend walking, playing, eating, and sharing secrets. Summer can’t last forever and soon Bo Ra sets her eyes on adding Ji Ah to her hive.
Seon’s joy and desolation were on full display in young actress Choi Soo In’s face. The isolation of being deemed less than was excruciating. Seon’s goodhearted, but clueless mother thought the girls in class were her friends, never knowing the little darlings made her daughter’s life hell every day at school. When Seon and Ji Ah had a falling out, neither behaved perfectly, both making terrible mistakes. Sympathetically, both made their mistakes out of a desire to not be rejected and left unprotected on the fringe. Ji Ah had been largely abandoned by her mother and father which caused resentment toward Seon. Seon’s family struggled financially but Seon and her mother had a warm, close relationship. Director Yoon showed the vulnerability in the girls and also Seon’s strength as she attempted to find out how things went wrong so quickly. Working out human relationships in the crucible of a classroom was a daunting task. Yoon Ga Eun showed Seon’s journey with a light hand, never resorting to the over-the-top bullying in so many Kdramas. Yet also showing that words can be as sharp as a razor, especially in one raw scene involving colored pencils.
The World of Us was a claustrophobic world of dreams and nightmares as Seon and Ji Ah navigated the perilous path of growing up even in the innocence of childhood. The film was not all conflict, scenes of the girls sharing a skillet of kimchi fried rice, dyeing their nails, or happily playing in the water demonstrated the sheer joy of new friendship. The two often forged toward the unknown separately as they gradually and painfully learned the process of making friends and which friendships were worth the effort and didn’t require selling one’s soul. The World of Us was an honest trip into childhood and one worth taking.
2 August 2024
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