House of Hummingbird is a movie I stumbled across one night and I just sat there mesmerized throughout its 2hr 18min run time. It has such a simple plotline (if you can even call it that), yet it engages you with character study, family drama, adolescent insecurities, loneliness and even grief.
It's a coming of age story about a teenage girl named Eunhee who is abused by her brother and shown little affection by her parents. She doesn't seem to have much interest in school as she sleeps in class without care. The closest people in her life are her best friend, a boyfriend and her teacher. The troubles and delights she shares with them are handled with such finesse that no incident ever seems forced or melodramatic.
Her life at home is filled with dysfunction. From her brother beating her for any form of disrespect to her parents fighting loudly right in front of their children. The way she reacts to events like this are not overt cries for attention, but are shown in her general personality or her simple day to day actions towards other people in her life. She deals with romance in the idealistic and sometimes naive views of the 14 year old girl she is. Whether she's getting in fights with her friend or dealing with being left by someone she's come to trust, she always reacts in such a realistic and sympathetic and human way.
A heartfelt drama taking place in the mid 90s, House of Hummingbird intertwines elements from its story to real life events that were big in South Korea like the death of Kim Il Sung and the Seongsu bridge collapse. This makes the characters feel even more real than the phenomenal acting and writing already does. It stands tall against other great coming of age works like Fish Tank, The Way Way Back, and Eight Grade. It's a shame that even though this South Korean movie also came out in 2019, Parasite recieved far more acclaim. I liked Parasite to an extent, but this film is much more worth your time.
