Forgot password

Kim Jong-kwan, director of Frosted Window, during his interview with Rita Andreetti (provided by Asian Movie Pulse)

Two Korean independent films screened at this year's Jeonju International Film Festival have drawn attention from international media. Italian film critic Rita Andreetti met individually with Kim Jong-kwan, director of Frosted Window, and Kim Da-som, director of the debut feature SOAR, conducting in-depth interviews with each.

In his interview, Kim Jong-kwan discussed the omnibus structure of the film, set in Seoul's Seochon neighborhood. "It started from a single rule," he said, "that each episode had to be a story that unfolds within just one day." He noted that Frosted Window was his first work in which both the shoot and the release took place in the post-pandemic era, and expressed his wish to capture two things simultaneously: the quiet of everyday life, and an awareness of what was lost during that time. In a separate review, Andreetti compared the film to the work of Hong Sangsoo, Jim Jarmusch, and Éric Rohmer, while recognizing it as distinctly Kim Jong-kwan's own. Amid this international critical reception, Frosted Window went on from its Jeonju screening to be selected as the opening film of the 2025 London Korean Film Festival.

Kim Da-som (left) and critic Rita Andreetti (right) following the interview (provided by Asian Movie Pulse)

Kim Da-som explained that SOAR began with a photograph of a missing child on the back of a snack box. The decision to center the story on the child rather than the child's mother gave the narrative its direction, and the relationship between two women naturally became the heart of the film. On her choice to depict the conflict between the two female characters without any violent confrontation, she said: "The women I know don't behave that way" — a film that questions the very way media represents conflict between women. She also spoke candidly about the realities that followed the film's completion: after submitting to multiple festivals, she ran into distribution barriers amid a shrinking festival landscape, and only returned to the editing room three years later before finally reaching Jeonju. Following its Jeonju screening, SOAR is now set for a domestic theatrical release on June 17.

The two films offer an example of Korean independent cinema from the Jeonju International Film Festival capturing the attention of international critics. Though different in genre and in the directors' career stages, what international media found compelling was strikingly similar: an approach to emotion that never overreaches, a sensitivity attuned to the small fractures of daily life, and a quiet, steady attention to the relationships between characters. This points to Korean independent cinema's capacity to create genuine resonance with international audiences and critics — not through grand events, but through the density of feeling and the texture of human connection.

Sources

• Asian Movie Pulse, "Kim Jong-kwan Interview: I Feel Like Frosted Window Is a Kind of Novel Written by the Protagonist of Worst Woman," 2026.05.07

• Asian Movie Pulse, "Kim Da-som Interview: Is That Really How the Women I Know Behave?," 2026.05.07

• TAXIDRIVERS, "'Frosted Window' di Kim Jong-kwan, e il tempo delle immagini," 2026.05.06