Mark Reviews Movies: HOUSE OF HUMMINGBIRD

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Review by Mark Dujsik | June 25, 2020

There is such misery—such sadness and anger and uncertainty—on display in House of Hummingbird, and there seems no way around or through it. The central figure of writer/director Bora Kim's film is Eun-hee (Ji-hu Park), a 14-year-old girl living in Seoul. She has trouble in school. Her parents belittle their children or fight with each other. Her older sister avoids the house as much as possible, and her brother beats his younger sister regularly.

There's more to Eun-hee's troubles, including a flighty boyfriend and the discovery of a lump under her ear, but there is also much more to Kim's understanding of how this family has become so toxic, as well as why things have arrived at a miserable stalemate. To be clear, Kim takes Eun-hee's side—and rightly so—in these relationships, but the filmmaker shows considerable empathy in the way she ensures that we at least see the other side of those relationships, too.

It's a slice-of-life tale, which follows Eun-hee in the autumn of 1994. We meet the character in the midst of a dysfunctional life. Her father (played by In-gi Jeong) runs a rice shop, and the scoldings he often gives his children are clearly a projection of his own sense of failure. The mother (played by Seung-yeon Lee) could have gone to college, but instead, the family invested in the education of her brother (just as Eun-hee's parents are betting on their only son), who is now a gravely ill alcoholic. Her life could have been more, and she seems to live every moment trying to repress that knowledge.

The film spends a lot of time, not only with Eun-hee's struggles, but also in revealing these details, these connections, and this potential for some sympathy for all of the characters. The one bright spot of Eun-hee's life becomes her new Chinese teacher Yong-ji (Sae-byuk Kim), who actually listens to the teen and offers honest, wise advice about dealing with and confronting life's problems.

For all of the everyday misery here, House of Hummingbird does find some difficult, bittersweet hope in the plain truth that everyone—from Eun-hee, to her family and friends, even to the kind teacher—is suffering in some way. It doesn't end by the finale, revolving around a real-life tragedy, but there's at least a glimpse of hopeful progress in life's little things.

Note: House of Hummingbird is available from Well Go USA Entertainment through Kino Lorber's virtual theatrical program Kino Marquee. You can rent the film for home viewing, with part of the cost going to your local independent theaters (e.g., the Music Box Theatre in Chicago). For more information and to purchase access to the film, click here. Participating theaters are listed on the page.

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