Film archive, 2025

The Accordion Door

아코디언 도어

Director SON Kyeong-su

1Festival entries

★Avg. rating

The only thing middle school third-grader Ji-soo is absorbed in is writing. The appearance of Hyun-joo, a transfer student who says soccer is so fun that she could die from it, awakens Ji-soo in an unexpected way. The Accordion Door hints at the possibility of a teenage first-love romance initially, only to defy expectations and turn in an uncontrollable direction. Having lost some of his memory due to a childhood incident, Ji-soo gains a talent for writing, as if it were both the price and compensation for post-traumatic stress disorder. He firmly believes in the astounding idea that a slippery, elongated, squirming strange substance—be it creature, symbol, or signal—entered his body and settled there giving the ability to write. However, that belief shatters into pieces under the weight of fear towards herself, curiosity towards someone he finds intriguing, and the jealousy and distrust that follow. It is a unique fantasy where a painful memory becomes a driving force, an impetus, a poison for creation; and where a state of mind, appropriated into strange images, leads to both breakdown and growth. The end is truly aching and cruel, yet a different belief will quietly convey that the act of writing and re-writing will continue.