Movie 'Coming of Age' Review: "Even as I age, I don't feel like an adult," a candid confession

YouTuber Omar has raised a discourse on the meaning of family in modern society and individual maturity through the film 'Coming of Age', an award winner at the Busan International Film Festival. In the video, he analyzes the film's plot and characters, pointing out the realistic aspects that arise when the group known as family clashes with an individual's values.

"No one is a bad person"... Imperfect families in the movie 'Coming of Age'

Omar introduced the main plot of the movie 'Coming of Age' as the story of Cheol-taek, a father battling cancer, and his daughter Jeong-mi, who cares for him. According to the explanation in the video, the father, Cheol-taek, works as a welder and lives in a semi-basement, while the daughter, Jeong-mi, works as an aspiring actress and is in a difficult economic situation. Intersecting this is the story of the mother, Hyeon-suk, who has been separated for 20 years, and the family of the eldest uncle, who has financial means but lives off his son.

Omar noted that the characters in the movie are by no means perfect or clean. He mentioned the image of the father drinking alcohol even while his body is sick, and the images of family members conflicting from their respective positions, saying, "I don't know whether to view the mother as a good mother or a bad mother." He analyzed that the film projects the image of families commonly seen around us, stating, "No one is a bad person, and no one is perfectly clean."

The clash between individual values and the family group

Omar cited the prominence of the 'individual' as one of the core themes of the film. He argued that if the family form 50 years ago was a single mass moving under the direct command of the head of the household, as times change, individual thoughts and positions have become important. He explained how the family group can act as a source of discomfort to an individual by citing a scene in the film where the mother, Hyeon-suk, conflicts with her siblings over the issue of an 80th birthday party.

In particular, he evaluated that the way the film handles the image of family is sophisticated. He cited the film's strength in showing the bumpy and uncomfortable side of family as it is, saying, "It does not reach conclusions such as family must unconditionally be harmonious, or must love and devote themselves to each other." He mentioned the diversity of family relationships, stating, "Harmony may be ideal, but if it is not the case, one might have to keep a distance from the family."

"A twenty-five-year-old wearing a forty-year-old's mold"... Reflections on aging

Regarding the movie title 'Coming of Age', Omar shared his personal experience and posed philosophical questions about aging. He confessed that even though the first digit of his age recently changed to '4', in terms of internal maturity, he is still no different from a twenty-five-year-old.

Omar stated, "I feel like a twenty-five-year-old wearing a forty-year-old's mold," revealing that getting older does not necessarily mean that insight or maturity as an adult arises automatically. He added that through the film, he came to think, "Perhaps it is something that needs to be let go." He continued by acknowledging that the relationship called family is a structure that is bound to be tiring and exhausting due to generational differences, and conveyed that 'Coming of Age' is a work through which one can view family from their own respective positions.