En Route To - IFFDAY

Competitive sectionBusan Award for Best Actor, LEE JiwonNew Currents Award

Coming of AgeWomen

This is no ordinary matter. Yoon-ji, a first-year high school student, is pregnant from a secret affair with her homeroom teacher, Jong-seong. Jong-seong is unreachable and hasn′t shown up at school for days. His wife, Min-yeong, has stormed into the school looking for her husband and even filed a missing person′s report. Unlike Jong-seong, who did not want the child, Yoon-ji had hoped to give birth and finally have a family of her own. Now, she firmly believes that if she just gets rid of the baby, Jong-seong will return. She illegally obtains pills, seeks out a veterinary clinic, and attempts to terminate the pregnancy. Her roommate, Kyeong-seon, accompanies her on this anxious, uncomfortable, and unsettling journey. The situation faced in En Route To is serious, radical, and potentially shocking. This is not merely because of the gravity of the matter in a secular sense or the series of predictable repercussions that will follow. Rather, the film′s true ambition lies in its lack of interest in dwelling on such things. Just as a subtle war of nerves seems to unfold amidst secrets and lies, Yoon-ji boldly carries her desires into action, one by one, only to be spectacularly broken. The characters will witness precisely how merciless the world they believed in, wanted to believe in, or thought they had to believe in, truly is. Therefore, this is not a pure and romantic school drama or a moral tale, but a drama of fierce passion and turbulent waves where both adults and children are violently shaken before a cold hearted, worldly reality. Yet, even in this chaos, there are girls who do not lose moments of humor or the exit of friendship and companionship, ultimately reaching their own kind of conclusion. The film′s fortitude in handling this is remarkable.

Programme note by JEONG Jihye