Aloners. On solitude | San Sebastian 2021
Of all the East-Asian national cinemas that have attracted the most attention across the last decade, South Korea’s is certainly the most visible one. With an industry that has a massive output and a constant presence in the world’s biggest festivals, where it has constantly won the industry’s top awards (from the historic Palme d’Or won by Bong Joon-Ho in 2019 with Parasite, to Kim Ki-Duk’s 2021 Golden Lion winner Pietà, to the small zoo composed of bears, leopards and tigers won by Hong Sang-soo), Korean cinema seems to be living its most successful age since the sixties. But one must acknowledge the fact that, for the most part, the Korean films that arrive onto the international circuit are directed by men – and so, the release of a film such as Aloners, the feature-length debut of young female filmmaker Hong Sung-eun, is more than welcome in this context. However, her film is marred by formal indecisiveness and a series of facile narrative choices which distract from the weight of its main topic: that of contemporary loneliness and alienation.
Title
Aloners
Director/ Screenwriter
Hong Sung-eun
Actors
Gong Seung-yeon, Jung Da-eun, Seo Hyun-woo, Park Jeong-hak, Kim Hannah, Kim Mo-beom
Country
South Korea
Year
2021
Distributor
M-LINE Distribution
Synopsys
Jina is the best employee at a credit card company call center. She avoids building close relationships, choosing instead to live and work alone. Jina maintains her solitary lifestyle well until her irritating neighbor, who would attempt to strike up conversations with her, is discovered dead a few days after his lonely death.
Film critic & journalist. Collaborates with local and international outlets, programs a short film festival - BIEFF, does occasional moderating gigs and is working on a PhD thesis about home movies. At Films in Frame, she writes the monthly editorial - The State of Cinema and is the magazine's main festival reporter.
