Psyche

One of the key narrative motifs of coming-of-age cinema is changing schools. A student moving from one school to another may seem simple, but it brings more changes than one might expect. And finding a friend who truly understands you in a new environment is never as easy as it seems. In that sense, In-young is lucky. After transferring from Seoul to a rural village, she grows close to Eun-ha, a member of the track team with a cool, aloof charm, and the two come to share many things. Among the things they share is the habit of stealing other people’s belongings. They even make their own rules, collecting the stolen objects in a hideout known only to them. The film’s title carries a double meaning. For In-young, who suffers from a respiratory illness, breathing itself is a struggle for survival. Eun-ha, meanwhile, longs to leave behind the suffocating house and village where she lives and find a place where she can finally breathe. In this way, Nam Ji-eun’s Psyche reveals the coldness of the world through two children struggling simply to live, each in her own way. Yet because the film is grounded in compassion, we too are able to “breathe” as we watch it. The film is distinguished by its calm, carefully sustained cinematic atmosphere.