Spirits' Homecoming

This review may contain spoilers!

This is a story that recounts unimaginable horrors in a very powerful way, sadly it's let down through poor film-making and a weak modern day subplot. I would give Spirits' Homecoming a 4/10.

This film is about how Japanese troops took young girls from South Korea and forced them to work as sex workers during the Japanese occupation; it's a horrific story and when the film pays attention to this plot it's absolutely incredible. The music used in this film isn't frequent but it is powerful, it puts a lot of emphasis upon the truly horrible scenes.

Son Sook, who played Young-Hee, was one of the only good present day performers; the grief she carried over the events she had to live through as a child was really well portrayed. Oh Ji-Hye, who played Jung-Min's Mother, gave a very grounded performance in this film; I liked that she wasn't always the best at displaying her love for her daughter because it showed the mother to be a character who felt like the only responsible one within the household. Cha Soon-Hyoung, who played Yoshimi, was a very admirable character in this film; I appreciated that we got to see a least one performance where there was someone who stood up for the young girls.

However the best performance came from Kang Ha-Na, who played Jung-Min. This would have been a grueling performance for a seasoned actress yet alone for one as young as Ha-Na. The pain and the atrocities that this character has to grow through and portrayed really well by this young actress. This is a character that we see mature in such a brutal and harsh way.

There is an element of this story that takes place in the modern day and it really lets the film down; firstly there is a young psychic character who can dead spirits for some reason and she becomes a weak conduit for a link to the main story. Unfortunately because of this rather strange choice of storytelling the film is let down considerably, there is a sluggish and inconsistent pace that relies on the shock value of the source material more than anything to keep going. The cinematography looks sloppy, I felt like I was watching a director's first student film when I was watching this. The editing wasn't any better than the cinematography, cuts were slow and bogged the film's pacing down.

Choi Ri, who played Eun-Kyung, was the character that I had the biggest problem with in the modern day subplot; she was all over the place and her ability to see spirits felt really out of place. Seo Mi-Ji, who played Young-Hee, lacked screen presence; I didn't really feel like her connection to Jung-Min was focussed upon strongly enough. Jung In-Gi, who played Jung-Min's Father, gave a bit of a wooden performance; he couldn't really match Ji-Hye's performance at all. Kim Si-Eun, who played Bon-Sook, was a character that was written pretty badly; it was never really made clear if she was a neutral character or an antagonist.