On the Border

In China, a teenage boy dreams of fulfilling his life in South Korea. The director's depiction of the boy's life and the sleepy border town he lives in gives a beautiful insight into the life and desires of people living a life on hold, hoping for "a better life in a better place."

This movie is amazing and its a map to our soul, our silences and our dreams. Poetry, sensibility and an existencial inquiry.

What does freedom mean? Can we as humans go wherever we want to? Money, power and control... are threating things to our freedom as humans?

10/10

Taken soberly and deliberately, in this urban road movie, the idea of a border is duplicated from the literal and the metaphorical. On the Border is a minimal story and photographically beautiful that finds in spaces and silences the best way to communicate its powerful meaning.

Very simple story with a very strong and deep concepts. On The Border is really the story of our real life, no exaggeration, no extra dramatic points, no complexity but a simple narration of our real life to stay hopeful despite of troubles and failures. Its simplicity in storytelling never spoils its powerful concept and meaning which is obvious at the final look of the boy on the border line. He has no other choice but to get back to first square and try to cross it later. He wont give up, since he has proven himself as a guy who is strong enough to cross the border when he decided to study in S.Korea instead of China, when he began to resist against his father.

This is a great film that leaves much more traces in our soul with its realistic expression, cinematography and acting management. The way to achieve his dreams is beyond the one-step further, but the challenges are much more for the young boy. The director does this in a very striking and impressive way.