Bombam

Middle-aged Yeong-gyeong and Su-hwan meet at the wedding party of a common friend. She passes out drunk, and he carries her home on his back. Soon this becomes a daily ritual, as the two broken beings – one’s spirit consumed by alcohol and the other’s body sapped by arthritis – begin to find strength and solace in each other. Their gentle, platonic bond – outside society, outside history – offers a chance at salvation, but is severely stressed by Yeong-gyeong’s repeated relapses. Adapted from Kwon Yeo-sun’s novel of the same name, Spring Night, Kang Mija’s long-awaited second feature starring the great Han Ye-ri, paints a spare, unrelenting portrait of a doomed romance between two forlorn souls cast adrift by a painful past. While borrowing elements from melodrama and fairy tale, Kang refuses to soften the blow, making us agonisingly intimate with both Yeong-gyeong’s terminal self-destruction and Su-hwan’s longing helplessness – a surprising reversal of traditional gender dynamics. Despite its raw and unremitting quality, there is great tenderness in Kang’s lyrically structured film, its nights gripped by inchoate yearning and its days suffused with the promise of renewal. (Srikanth Srinivasan)

Kang Mi-ja was born in 1966. She is working as an editor for films and series, and teaches film editing at Korea National University of Arts.

Director Kang Mi-ja. Screenplay Lee Ji-sang, Kang Mi-ja. Cinematography Lee Ji-sang, Seo Tae-beom. Editing Kang Mi-ja. Sound So-yeong Jeon. Production Design Si-ha Park. Producer Hong In-pyo. Executive Producer Lee Ji-sang. Production company Wolwon Film (Seoul, South Korea). With Han Ye-ri, Kim Seol-jin.

World sales Cinema DAL

Films: 1998: Hyeonbin / Deep or Quiet (short film). 2008: Pureun Gangeun Heulleora / Let the Blue River Run. 2024: Bombam / Spring Night.