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Fragment Photo: Fantasia International Film Festival

South Korean director Kim Sung-yoon's directorial feature début Fragment revolves around two middle schoolers whose lives are tragically intertwined. Jun-gang (Oh Ja-hun) is forced to look after his younger sister. Trying to find a part-time job to avoid eviction, he encounters the tormented and angry Gi-su (Moon Seong-hyun), whose father was murdered by Jun-gang's father.

A powerful début that explores the complicated connections we share with others, Sung-yoon explores childhood trauma with a maturity rarely seen in cinema. He shows each of his characters sympathy and tries to understand them on a human level. Fragment is never driven by the need to respond and this singles it out as a political film in an increasingly divided world.

In conversation with Eye For Film, Sung-yoon discussed blurring traditional narrative lines, Ken Loach's pearl of wisdom and Fragment's journey of discovery.

Fragment Photo: Fantasia...

The Busan International Film Festival is known to give a platform to many home-grown debutants, both in front of and behind the camera, especially in their Korean Cinema Today section. A fair few of them go on to have successful careers within the South Korean industry and one such director who premiered his first feature this year at the prestigious festival is Kim Sung-yoon. Despite this being his first feature-length work as a director, Kim comes with an impressive track record, his resume including working as an assistant director on works like “The Vanished”, “Bring Me Home” and “Kim Ji-young: Born 1982”, in addition to his own short films. For his debut, he chooses to put forth an interesting take on the thriller genre.

Fragment is released by Finecut

Kim Jun-gang is a middle schooler who lives with his little sister Jun-hui. A tragedy has separated them from their father,...