Synopsis
A haven built on wishes.
A girl from a troubled family befriends two younger girls and begins to feel a sense of normalcy as they go adventuring at the seaside.
2019 ‘우리집’ Directed by Yoon Ga-eun
A girl from a troubled family befriends two younger girls and begins to feel a sense of normalcy as they go adventuring at the seaside.
Wu-ri-jip, Una casa per noi, הבית שלנו, 우리집, 我们的家园, 童心計畫
The House of Us opens with a shot that traps our young protagonist, Hana, in the background. Like so many Korean films, The House of Us is about family. But this is not about a healthy family. Hana is trying to save her warring family. Her mindset is more mature than her elders, as she constantly eats family dinners alone. She wants a new family, and so forms a surrogate family with other children who have struggles at home.
It's interesting to see two groups of children presented as similarly struggling, even though their issues (parental divorce, homelessness) are vastly different in scale. The social conservatism in certain parts of Korean culture is re-enforced by this dynamic. Or perhaps it…
yo miss Yoon Ga-eun, what the hell??!? we need to talk, just the two of us. you made two feature-lenght movies and you beautifully broke my entire heart with both!!! Fucking stop it already😭
What a special film and great sophmore follow up to writer/director Yoon Ga-eun's feature debut masterpiece, The World of Us. She is such a talented creator/storyteller.
The House of Us explores the tension and distress associated with two families on the brink of disruption framed from the perspective of the children trapped in these volatile dynamics.
Due to personal experiences, I especially connected to the heart of the story and the subtleties of Kim Na-yeon's (as Hana, main protagonist) balancing act performance trying to deftly maintain harmony between two parents who simply don't get along.
The performances are all great (particularly the three main girls) and the film's flow is exceptional. Overall, The House of Us is an emotional journey…
it's the way that even if these 3 children are combined, they're still way more mature than me.
mostly because i can’t cook…… 😭
i'm a little lost for words, this is so beautiful and pure and heartfelt and the colours and cinematography are amazing and the three leads are so so so captivating
I wondered how Yoon Gaeun might top the preciseness of preteen girlhood from The World of Us, but she returns with more ambitious storytelling in The House of Us which will remind audiences of Hou Hsiao Hsien's A Summer at Grandpa's, a touch of Moonrise Kingdom and Koreeda's Our Little Sister and I Wish mixed in---- but the entire film is still wholly her own, in a manner only she could execute. Characters from The World of Us appear as cameos in this too, and what I would give to see Yoon Ga Eun construct her very own Yoon Ga Eun Extended Universe!
A nice companion piece to Yoon Ga-eun's The World of Us, though just as expected for a film told through the eyes of children it evokes the memories of that point in time, although I really love how much this film drives down what it means to belong within a family when your own seems to be unable to pay any mind. For every moment that Yoon Ga-eun brings to us that emphasizes the happiness that we remember from being around our friends as children, there's also a melancholy side to it - not just from seeing their real lives when not together, but in how they remind us of that point in our life.
But it's also very simple, sometimes I think that's all we really need to be so moving. Great stuff, can't wait to see what more will Yoon Ga-eun bring us in the near future.
I wish this was our home.
wow i didn’t expect to cry over this 🥲 dis also somehow reminded me of shoplifters/nobody knows