[VIFF 2019] REVIEW: 'Another Child', another dysfunctional family drama
You’ve seen Another Child before. It’s a coming-of-age story about two girls who overcome messy lives at home. It's simple, and save for some minor plot twists, it is a modest film buoyed by the performance of its four female stars.
Joo-ri (Kim Hye-joon) and Yoon-ah (Park Se-jin) attend the same school but come from very different backgrounds. Joo-ri's parents are married and live in a comfortable condo. Yoon-ah’s father left long ago and her mother runs the family restaurant, mostly by herself. When we first meet the two girls, their worlds have already collided: Joo-ri’s father is having an affair with Yoon-ah's mother and both girls know about it.
Dae-won (Kim Yoon-seok, pulling double duty as the director) and Mi-hee's (Kim So-jin) affair ends up with an unwanted pregnancy. Dae-won, for obvious reasons, doesn't want to have a kid, but Mi-hee believes that it's the first time she's been allowed to have agency over her own actions. She had given birth to Yoon-ah at a young age and feels robbed of a chance to have a more fulfilling life.
When Young-joo (Yum Jung-ah) finally musters up the courage to confront Mi-hee, their exchange turns physical and Mi-hee is taken to the hospital where she gives premature birth to a boy. The rest of the film attempts to navigate the complex family dynamics and explores each of the characters' wants and needs. Dae-won is reprehensible and makes no attempt to solve the crisis that's conveyed with both frustration and comedy. Already physically distant -- they sleep in different bedrooms -- Young-joo continues to distance herself from Dae-won, who makes little effort to visit Mi-hee at the hospital. At one point, he literally runs away from his daughter, Joo-ri.
What's great about Kim's portrayal of family dysfunction are the simmering tensions just beneath the surface. While a film like Noah Baumbach’s upcoming Marriage Story made a point about how adults can yell at each other ad nauseum until both are exhausted, Young-joo and Dae-won's quiet struggles are certainly more indicative of a more subdued unfulfillment. Differences are ignored or understood, emotional support is absent and both have mentally checked out. They are cold and impatient toward each other, but every conversation at least starts off polite. It’s here where Young-joo and Mi-hee end up bonding, both women unsatisfied with their lives and finding some comfort in each other despite their stoicism.
This doesn’t work without strong performances, and this is also where Joo-ri and Yoon-ah come in, whose relationship begins with cathartic girl-on-girl violence that would even make Quentin Tarantino proud. They stand at odds with one another at the beginning, with Joo-ri demanding Yoon-ah's mother to stop gold digging, and Yoon-ah threatening to ruin their lives just as they had ruined hers.
They soon realize, however, that it's the kids vs. the adults, and through their own ups and downs and the life of their half-brother manage to forge a relationship that overcomes their vastly different backgrounds. It culminates in an empty amusement park where they play hooky. As in many coming-of-age films, Joo-ri and Mi-hee formalize their bond with a blood pact of sorts, though in a really bizarre and morbid fashion involves cremated remains and some chocolate milk.
Another Child has some really great moments where it lets the emotions really sink in but it’s a little predictable and lacks that big emotional gut punch that makes it really memorable.
Another Child gets two and a half stars out of four.
