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Korea Herald
27-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Korea Herald
Review: Infectious optimism of 'It's Okay!'
'It's Okay!' emerges as 2025's most refreshing Korean film — a perfect balance of wit and warmth that sneaks up on you At last year's 74th Berlinale, a little-known Korean film took home the Crystal Bear for Best Feature Film in the Generation Kplus category, a section aimed at audiences up to fourteen. That film was Kim Hye-young's directorial debut, "It's Okay!" Despite its recognition at the festival, it would take another year for the film to secure a domestic release. Berlinale, it turns out, had a sharp eye — "It's Okay!" stands as one of the finest Korean commercial films of the year. The story follows In-young (Lee Re), who loses her mother in a fatal car accident at the precise moment of her triumphant performance with a prestigious dance group in Seoul (In a brutal temporal juxtaposition, the pounding percussion of the performance doubles as an ominous buildup to the crash). A year later, In-young has largely ridden out her grief and continues at the dance school, exempt from fees but occasionally harassed by peers. She finds quiet support from her friend and budding love interest Do-yoon (Lee Jung-ha), who works alongside her at a convenience store, and the enigmatic pharmacist Dong-wook (Son Suk-ku). When evicted for unpaid rent, she decides to take residence in her dance school's gym. The newly appointed artistic director Seol-ah (Jin Seo-yeon) discovers In-young's living arrangement and surprisingly offers her shelter in her immaculate home. What follows is a gradual push-and-pull between two opposing personalities — In-young's restless energy against Seol-ah's rigid control. "It's Okay!" is a test of limits — an experiment in how far an unshakable brightness can go, whether there is any hardship that cannot be reframed with a hopeful gloss. Such audacity usually collapses into manipulative sentimentality or empty spectacle. But this is a rare case, so unwavering in its conviction and sincerity that even the most hardened cynic can't help but surrender to its charm. And this isn't just emotional sleight of hand; the precise craft and textured composition make its optimism not merely a mood but a convincing statement. The screenplay's naturalistic dialogue serves as its primary triumph. In-young's daily life is threaded with brisk, sitcom-paced jabs and one-liners. The lines move with such lived-in ease, as if overheard in high school hallways, drawn from the corners of real life. This radiance eclipses the objective hopelessness that might otherwise define an orphan's existence. First-time director Kim Hye-young may not yet be a household name, but her command of piquant dialogue is no accident. She co-directed the critically acclaimed but commercially overlooked "Be Melodramatic" (2019), a series that divided audiences with its unusually dialogue-driven approach to romance. More tellingly, she served as assistant director on "Extreme Job" (2018), a blockbuster comedy where verbal dexterity mattered as much as its ingenious premise. Lee Re's performance dazzles in many ways — her infectious smile, the sudden bursts of vulnerability and the effortless physicality of her movements. But above all, it's her spirited command of language that defines the role, the way she delivers each line with a light-footed, mischievous charm, turning each line into a kind of playful defiance. She single-handedly anchors the film's optimism, making it not just credible but enjoyable. When her dance teammates take a low blow at her for being an orphan, she fires back with a bratty smirk: "Taught myself manners on YouTube — no parents, you see." When her teacher catches her secretly living in the gym, mid-bite of cup noodles, she barely hesitates before offering with cheeky nonchalance: "Want some?" Lee's performance is an unbroken display of wit and nerve that cements her as one of the most promising actors of her generation. Born in 2006, she most recently left an impression as the revenge-obsessed cult girl in Netflix's "Hellbound" — a performance of equal conviction, though cut from an entirely different cloth. Jin Seo-yeon enters as a stern, unforgiving perfectionist with little patience for disorder but not without her own trauma. Unlike In-young, Seol-ah embodies restraint to the point of asceticism — surviving on vegetable drinks rather than meals. The way the film reshapes her as its most dynamic character, even more so than her teenage students, speaks to the director's subtle command of nuance and texture. When In-young serves her spam — her favorite food — Seol-ah's hesitant bite marks the first crack in her self-imposed discipline. The supporting cast serves the story well, with conflicts stemming organically from adolescent insecurities rather than simplified villainy. Chung Su-bin plays Na-ri, In-young's wealthy rival weighed down by her mother's expectations. As Na-ri slowly comes to terms with In-young, her narrative arc becomes central to the film's exploration of self-identity and growth. Son Suk-ku delivers a scene-stealing cameo as In-young's unlikely soulmate Dong-wook, his wily humor and laid-back demeanor masking a sincere affection for her. Towards the end, a 360-degree pan shot sweeps around In-young and Seol-ah as they dance together in the basement, dissolving the rigid, one-sided teacher-student or even mother-daughter dynamic that once seemed to define them. No longer just a caretaker and dependent, they move in tandem, bound by solidarity shaped through mutual experience of overcoming adversity and growing up. "It's Okay!" opened in theaters Wednesday.
Broadcast Pro
11-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Broadcast Pro
Doha Film Institute-supported films set to make mark at 75th Berlinale
Diversity of the films represents emerging and established voices from the Arab world and beyond supported by Doha Film Institute. The 75th Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale), set to take place from February 13 to 23, has selected eight films supported through Doha Film Institute's Grants programme. The films will be featured across multiple sections, including Competition, Critics' Week, Forum Expanded, Generation Kplus and Panorama. Speaking about the selected films, Fatma Hassan Alremaihi, Chief Executive Officer of Doha Film Institute, said: 'The selection of these films at the Berlin Film Festival is a testament to the incredible talent and creativity of young filmmakers from across the world, that stand out for their diversity of themes and their innovative approach to storytelling. It reflects our commitment to supporting filmmakers who are pushing boundaries and telling compelling stories that resonate globally. At Doha Film Institute, we believe in the power of cinema to bridge cultures and inspire change, and this achievement reaffirms our mission to elevate voices that deserve to be heard.' The DFI -supported films at Berlinale 2025 include Yunan (Palestine, Germany, Canada, Italy, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar) by Ameer Fakher Eldin screens in the Competition section. The film is about Munir, a renowned Arab author exiled in Germany, who is burdened by psychological torment and plagued by hauntingly vivid dreams. Desperate and despondent, he embarks on a journey to a remote island, where he encounters Valeska, a wise elderly woman, and her steadfast son, Karl. Their presence unexpectedly radiates hope and redemption. Ancestral Visions of the Future (Lesotho, France, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Qatar) by Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese screens in the Berlinale Special segment, is a poetic allegory of the filmmaker's childhood, an ode to cinema and an inner nod to his mother. Screening in the Perspectives programme is Mohamed Rashad's The Settlement (Egypt, France, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Qatar) follows Hossam who gives up his thuggish lifestyle to be able to provide for his sick mother and brother Maro after the death of his father. Hossam goes to work at the same factory as his father and begins to doubt whether his death was accidental. Featuring in the Forum Expanded is My Armenian Phantoms (Armenia, France, Qatar) by Tamara Stepanyan, is a tribute to the director's father, Vigen Stepanyan, who was a beloved theatre and film actor in Armenia. Screening in Generation Kplus, a competition programme that screens state-of-the-art international cinema, is The Botanist (China, Qatar) by Jing Yi, about a lonely Kazakh boy named Arsin, in the valley villages of the northern border of Xinjiang, who is obsessed with plants. Through his fascination with the plant world, he recounts memories of his nomadic family in contemporary times. The two films in the Panorama section include: Yalla Parkour! (Palestine, Sweden, Saudi Arabia, Qatar) by Areeb Zuaiter is about Ahmed, who aspires to become an international Parkour champion despite the blockade that troubles Gaza and Khartoum (Sudan, UK, Germany, Qatar) by Anas Saeed, Rawia Alhag, Ibrahim Snoopy, Timeea Mohamed Ahmed and Phil Cox, in which four Sudanese filmmakers mix observational documentary and innovative graphics, archives and animation to capture the lives of four real characters, all living and surviving in the war-torn metropolis of Khartoum. Selected to the Critics' Week is East of Noon (Egypt, Netherlands, Qatar) by Hala Elkoussi is a satire on the inner workings of an ailing autocracy and its inherent vulnerability to youth's unchained vision of a better world.
