SYNOPSIS
Twenty years ago, at eighteen, Seonyoung suffered a severe spinal injury in a fall. His family sold their home and shop in Incheon to cover medical bills, moving to his father's hometown of Cheongju. There, tragedy compounded: his father struggled with alcoholism, his mother’s health failed from hard labor, and his brother developed a mental illness after a traumatic military incident. Now, Seonyoung studies for the civil service exam, hoping to pass and finally return to Incheon to reclaim the life and memories left behind.
REVIEW
After an accident leaves his with a physical disability, Seonyoung spends nearly a decade preparing for the judicial exam. At the same time, he cares for his aging parents while searching for a home where the family can live together. Before he can reach his goal, however, the national exam is abolished, forcing his to chart a new course.
Though his situation might appear to be a dead end, the film takes the form of a road movie, as its title suggests. Eschewing interviews and narration, it adopts a quiet, observational approach—visually following Seonyoung in his wheelchair or car and framing the daily life of his family as a journey in itself. With the added constraints of the COVID-19 pandemic, that journey becomes even more confined and subdued. There is no easy beauty here, no ready spark of hope. Yet as we settle into the passenger seat beside Seonyoung, we come to see that his steady routine is sustained only through constant motion.
His movements—linking family, friends, and old acquaintances scattered like distant islands—convey the film’s central truth more eloquently than any conventional device: that amid the weight of life, it is the unceasing search for new paths that opens the breathing spaces in which life can endure.
DIRECTOR'S NOTE
Seonyoung faced his latest exam as if it were his last chance, still weighed down by the regret of a recent failure. But what truly captivated me was not the image of success he aimed for, but the unguarded stories of his long, difficult life, shared in the quiet moments between takes. This film is an attempt to draw closer to that beauty: the profound grace of an ordinary person who quietly endures, finding meaning in the smallest, most persistent acts of living.
CONTACT
시네마 달
festival@cinemadal.com
