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Original Film Title: KIM CHEOL
Director’s Name: Chengfeng Jin
Writer’s Name: Chengfeng Jin
Producer: Jie Ni
Country of Origin: China
Country of Filming: China
Language: Mandarin Chinese
Runtime: 1 hour 50 minutes
Film Description:
During summer vacation, city boy Sang-min is sent to his grandmother’s village, where he meets Kim Cheol, a boy called a “fool” by the villagers but who is in fact kind and resilient. When Sang-min discovers that Kim Cheol is bullied, and that his father, Chang-jun, pretends to be mentally disabled to escape responsibility—while Kim Cheol himself has never met his mother—the two boys embark on a quest to find her. Their journey leads only to a cold ten-yuan note from a disabled woman. Along the way, they share a clam soup by the reservoir and compete in a folk sports meet where Kim Cheol, despite being injured, earns dignity through perseverance. On the eve of their parting, Sang-min leaves behind his beloved toy airplane for the friend who taught him the meaning of motherly love—yet Kim Cheol never shows up to say goodbye.
Set in a Korean ethnic village during the 1980s, the film looks back on a beautiful childhood from an innocent perspective.