Treeless Mountain

So Yong Kim
2008

After the first half of "Treeless Mountain" I began to cynically wonder how many more beautifully shot festival darlings with brilliant non-actor performances I could handle. Thankfully through it's unraveling, this one proves that it's more than a pretty face with some complex psychology and a heartstring-tugging depiction of adolescence in upheaval. The relocation of sisters Jin and Bin to their alcoholic aunt's house is handled with a great degree of sophistication - Auntie is no monster, but by no means a positive a parental figure, yet when the girls are once again relocated (this time to their grandparents' farm) they sob just as hard as when their mother abandoned them. Kim's direction of children is a treat, and she deserves credit for the most nonchalant inclusion of a child with downs syndrome I've ever seen in a film. Beautiful cinematography and lots of neat slice-o-life elements (toasting grasshoppers for after school snacks, the sights and smells of a fish market, Grandma's agrarian routine) round out a great picture by a promising director.