Popular reviews

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  Review by Sin ✊🏿 ★★★★ 3

  Powerful film, with its power bound up in and permeating through its subdued nature.

  The two little girls who portray the sisters Jin and Bin bless the screen with amazingly true-to-life, naturalistic performances. You won't sense any "acting" here. I fucking love that the narrative is told from their perspective, and how they experience--and are forced to make the best of--the callous world they're trapped in.

  I also LOVE how the director (So Yong Kim) masterfully portrays Jin slowly "working things out" insofar as the bitter truths of her (and her sister's) reality. I love how these realizations are conveyed almost exclusively through silence: facial expressions, moments of "thinking," and behavior.

  Regarding the "piggybank arc" - I've never seen "kid…

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  Review by Travis Wagner ★★★★★ 3

  This film manages to be narratively complex, cinematically awe-inspiring and genuinely quite profound, all while keeping to a brisk 89 minutes. This film demands immediate and wholly engaged viewing.

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  Review by Buzz ★★★★

  This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

  When they swap all the coins for filling the piggy bank then wait for mom at the bus stop, my heart sinks. Please mom, don't make promises you can't keep. Distressful plot till the end, but somehow the cinematography was soothing and pleasant to see.

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  Review by VonBergundy ★★★½

  Summer of South Korean Cinema - 10/30 (Directed by a woman - 4/6)

  Very quiet and contemptlative story, with a look and feel very reminiscent of So Yong Kim's Lovesong. Her movies use closeups with very little background distractions to really put you into the headspace of the characters. It feels like a story being built from within the minds of the two sisters rather than a story of them inhabiting the real world. It's almost like a Ghibli film with the magic replaced by overcast skies and grilled grasshoppers. Just nice, unpretentious filmmaking that doesn't try to stretch itself too thin or rely on putting its characters through more misery than is necessary.

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  Review by send me your hate

  as long like The World of Us / The House of Us
  was bringing a kids issue, Treeless Mountain same brings kids issues, Treeless Mountain was quite depressing while i watch them, pretending everything was fine when something isn’t look fine.
  A true-natural acting from unfamous actor/actress, but they play as well, really touching my heart, especially the kids, speechless they F good. very heartwarming.
  the shots of cinematography was really good too, calming, stunning.

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  Review by A Bae ★★★★★

  This is just the kind of film I love to watch in the early morning while I try to wake up and drink my tea. Treeless Mountain is a quiet, beautiful shot film that focuses on two sisters adapting to life with the sudden abandonment by their mother. Besides being adorable, the two young actresses do an outstanding job. The eldest sister, Jin, is full of silent pride and seems to take her mother's abscence much harder than the younger, Bin. Jin was told to take care of her younger sibling, but at times that role is switched. Both sisters are shown supporting the other, holding on deperately to the hope that their mother will return, even when lies are revealed and harsh truths met.

  Wonderfully heartfelt. A gorgeous slice of life film. Quiet. If you like that sot of thing, watch it. I can see how this would bore a lot of people.

  Not me :D

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  Review by chuzen ★★★★

  which cure song was this?!?! 

  ugh, i need to give my kids a hug now

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  Review by ‮محمد‬ ★★★★½

  ما ادري ايش هي التعويذة السحرية اللي تحطها سو يونغ كيم على الاطفال اللي يمثلوا بأفلامها وتخليهم كانهم اطفال عايشين حياة حقيقية مو يمثلوا فلم. علاقة الاخوات الصغيرات بالفلم شي ساحر فعلًا وذكروني كثير بأطفال اختي الصغار. 

  فلم جميل واقعي ومؤلم عن اسلوب الطفل وطريقة تكيفه وتحمله للمشاق الصعبة في مرحلة كان من المفترض ان تكون ابسط واجمل ايام حياته.

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  Review by avokiddo ★★★½

  This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

  an intimate and touching story about two young sisters, jin and bin. the film is divided in three parts : they first live with their mother in a small apartment, then move to their aunt’s house after their mother left them, and finally to their grandparent’s (since their drunk aunt is no longer able to take care of them). this is a very delicate and lovely tale about childhood, and how the sisters adapt to the sudden absence of their mother, and to a life of constant traveling at a very young age. the beauty and the privacy of the shots make you feel as if you were there with the two young girls, living their struggles and their sorrow. the performance of the two young actresses is absolutely incredible, and is what makes the movie even greater and softer simultaneously. a very peaceful but sad film.

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  Review by scoppola ★★★★½ 1

  So Yong Kim portrays a beautifully unsentimental portrayal of a childhood lost. Proving yet again how South Korean directors are rocking the world of cinema right now.

  These performances were very raw and personal and was dealt with quite a bit of respect for the young girls who had no prior acting experiences. The actresses (both 5 and 7 years of age respectively) portrayed emotion and feelings so incredibly well considering they are at an age where typically kids can’t particularly recognize emotion. So Yong Kim is incredibly gifted to have gotten these performances out of these young talents.

  A beautiful slow-pace film about a childhood lost. A grimly realistic coming of age tale that narrates the lives of two…

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  Review by xan ★★★★

  watching children navigate the world by themselves without agency or advisory is genuinely the most heartbreaking thing to watch

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  Review by angel ★★★★★

  it’s 8pm on a monday and i guess i’m going to just sit here tearing up over a piggy bank