House of Hummingbird

That there is less a plot than a series of events is what distinguishes House of Hummingbird as a character study.

With an easy, lingering tempo and stunning frames shot through with light, this South Korean drama leaves the viewer with a sense of contemplative midsummer lassitude.

This slow-moving but exquisitely drawn character study and coming-of-age story, which has picked up several awards at film festivals around the world, takes its time getting where it's going, but the cumulative impact of the journey is powerful.

A really lovely, sensitive coming of age drama.

Sensitive and lived-in and strong in ways that a more forceful version of this story could never have been, Bora's debut sketches a portrait of a girl coming into her own strength.

A thoughtful and engrossing take on a familiar theme that is boosted immeasurably by the contributions of writer/director Bora Kim and young lead actress Ji-hu Park.

Kim Bora avoids melodrama as Eun-hee faces one challenge after another, sometimes with grace, sometimes the opposite. If she isn't a hero, she isn't a victim either.

A coming-of-age drama that captures the dilemmas of adolescence with a certain compositional sobriety, but which turns out, at least for me, to be quite dull and routine when it slowly travels the univocal paths of indulgence. [Full review in Spanish]

Eun-hee is not afraid to give a step forward and probe alternative directions that could bring her less suffering. And that, by itself, is laudable.

A touching, true, brutal, and frustratingly achingly hopeful coming-of-age drama that will stay with me for a long, long time. One of the best films of 2020.