Written by: So Yong Kim
Starring: Hee Yeon Kim, Song Hee Kim, Soo Ah Lee, Mi Hyang Kim, Boon Tak Park
Rating: [4.5/5]
Often seen as the most vulnerable for valid reasons both emotionally and physically, children deserve all of the protection in the world. However, they often show they have the resilience to persevere and withstand hardships to a higher degree than they typically receive credit for. Treeless Mountain acknowledges this and pieces together such a moving and meditative film moving together with wondrous elegance and care for the children right at the center.
Dropping them off at their aunt’s house, the mother of seven-year-old Jin (Hee Yeon Kim) and the younger Jin (Song Hee Kim) tell them she needs to leave and look for their father. With no signs of her returning anytime soon and facing the neglect of the adults around them, these two sisters learn how to fend for themselves if they want to survive.
Telling the story of Jin and Bin through their perspective carries a beautiful power in viewing how they see the world around them and how they can remain positive amongst a landscape of negativity and cynicism. This worldview can be afforded to children who do not bear the type of responsibility adults typically do in society. It allows moments of naivete about the possible return of their mother not to feel silly but something understandable for children. For them to truly believe in the reality of their mother fully abandoning them would cause a level of trauma that may take them a long time to recover from. Even if Jin begins to piece it together, she wants to protect her sister from this reality.
This sisterly dynamic carries much of the film in the way they interact with each other as the narrative does not go for these big swings in emotion. Instead, we sit in these moments with them as they try to do what they can to ensure the return of their mother. As told to them, when they fill the piggy bank given to them, she will be back. Their efforts to fill it show the promise these sisters have when they put their minds together but also their willingness to not give up on the idea of having adults around them who care for them. We, as audience members see everything to the contrary throughout the narrative but Jin cannot afford to give up nor will she. These moments of scheming to raise the funds they believe will bring their mother carry such a wholesomeness to them as they get to be kids in those moments. They can dream, they can innovate and much more because they see an end goal they want so much.
With this feature showing the perspective of the sisters, we get to see how they experience the adults in their lives, and positive would not be the word to accurately describe it. Not only does their mother drop them off with an indefinite return time, but the time they spend with their aunt does not make things much better. Nearly always drunk, she does not like the burden of caring for these kids placed upon her, which accurately sums up what these two girls represent to these adults. Not a blessing but a burden placed upon them that they feel they should not have to deal with, which would damage anyone if not for the incredible resolve of Jin and Bin. They take the abusive neglect and decide they will find a way to take care of themselves making their bond that much stronger. The neglect of these parents almost feels cartoonish to think that anyone could look at these two girls and decide they want nothing to do with them, but it says more about them than anything else. These sisters just get caught up with it and fall victim to circumstance.
Perpetually underrated as a filmmaker So Yong Kim heavily impresses with what she crafts in this feature. She works with such patience in telling this incredibly sad story and approaches it with delicacy. Having written this as a short story early in her career, bringing it to life visually allows for some striking moments for these sisters. The distinct patience she exhibits here allows for the moments to breathe and play out in such a natural manner that certainly helps the young actors she employs to tell this story. When the protagonists of your tale both sit under the age of eight, it will certainly come with its challenges in the acting realm seeing as kids of this age can only do so much. So Yong Kim makes it feel effortless and the two young girls also do a splendid job.
Yet another instance of So Yong Kim knocking it out of the park through her filmmaking Treeless Mountain tells such a loving and moving story. We ride along with these two young girls as they try to make the best of a situation that most could not bear. There are some shots in this feature that truly drive home exactly what this feature wants to elicit in showing the unconditional love of these sisters in the absence of it from the adults around them. Nearly operating as a survival tale but one with the beautiful wonder and zeal of children trying to figure it out as they go. Patient, kind, moving, and worth cherishing, this film came out of nowhere and completely captured my heart in all of the right ways.
Films with Josh 
