As I sat down to watch the 2017 South Korean drama "A Stray Goat", I did so without ever having heard about the movie. I happened to have a chance to watch it, and since it was an Asian movie that I hadn't already seen, of course I took that opportunity.
Writer and director Jae Min Jo managed to put together a storyline here that had some rather nicely fleshed out characters. It was characters with strong personalities, traits, quirks and the like, which definitely made it feel like a very realistic movie. And the acting performances were quite good, and that helped the movie along quite nicely. The story itself, is somewhat of an acquired taste; I think you will either enjoy the storyline or you will find it soul-crushingly boring. I happened to like the storyline.
The narrative in "A Stray Goat" is slow paced, I will admit to that. So if you don't enjoy dramas of this kind, then you will definitely not enjoy writer and director Jae Min Jo's 2017 movie. And while I did enjoy the storyline, I will admit to the pacing of the movie being a bit too much on the slow side.
If you are into heavy character-driven dramas then "A Stray Goat" should be something for you. If not, then you might find yourself in for a slow paced sort of pointless movie with a story that seems to hardly matter.
"A Stray Goat" was so very nicely carried by lead actor Jinyoung Park (playing Min-Sik) and lead actress Ji Woo (playing Ye-Ju). I was especially impressed with the performance put on by Ji Woo, because she put on such an outstanding performance in this movie, and definitely made the movie all the more watchable.
Granted, a movie like "A Stray Goat" is not suitable for everyone in the audience, but I do believe that this is a movie well-worth watching, especially if you enjoy well-written dramas.
My rating of "A Stray Goat" lands on a six out of ten stars.
