Recently screened at the NYAFF (New York Asian Film Festival), Juvenile Offender is a masterful, quiet film following the troubled life of South Korean teen Ji-gu (Young Ju Seo) as he battles to stay on the right side of the law.
Struggling to find his place in the world, Ji-gu is seemingly an average teenage boy. Left by his parents, his only family is his dying Grandfather who he must look after – a burden too much for a just kid. Ji-gu is struggling to find a connection with someone in the world, he has one with Sae-Rom (Jun Ye-Jin) but he soon loses contact with her after breaking his probation and being sent to juvenile reformatory.
What’s really impressive about this film is Young Ju Seo’s ability to keep the film alive, for a teenager to carry a film with such a quiet but dramatic performance speaks volumes, especially with it being only his second film. While Juvenile Offender is slow paced, it’s there for a reason, to tell Ji-gu’s story in a very real manner. He lives in a shell, breaking out in fits of anger only once every so often, like a ball of rage building up until he can’t contain it any longer. He’s frustrated with the world with the hand he’s been dealt and he’s confused as to why this is all happening to him and nobody else, and that no-one can understand what he’s going through. It’s telling the story of someone who’s angry at the world. He’s hardly a bad person, he’s just had too much put on him at such a young age.
The film only gets better as his mother (Jung-hyun Lee) enters the frame and we begin to see the complexities of their relationship unfold before us. She’s in over her head, treating him almost like a new toy to play with at first. But once it’s apparent to her he’s a person with needs she begins to realise the responsibility she has taken on and that she may be in too deep. We begin to see her life is just as messy as his, if not more so and it’s apparent they’re heading on a collision course towards each other.
I like the way the films looks at the importance of family and nurture – for a time Ji-gi begins to get better, happier after being looked after for the first time in his life, and you can see the way he might have gone if he’d had that parenting right from the beginning. The film’s only real downfall is the overly ambiguous ending, it’s hard to see what writer/director Yi-kwan Kang was attempting to say with it which is a real shame, because while you get the sense you’re not going to get a closed ending with this film, it’s equally frustrating to get something that seems so empty.
Rating: Juvenile Offender is a wonderful South Korean drama with mature performances far surpassing the age of the actors (6.5/10).
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