Hana Korea (2025)

Foreigner in Korea

Most emotional Korean movie I’ve seen in a long time. It starts slow — to the point that I was struggling to stay awake during the first third of the film — but then I simply fell in love with the main character and sympathized with everything she went through.

Even though the film is somewhat slow and lacks big plot twists and excitement, in this case that’s actually a plus. It allows the emotions of the main character, a girl named Hye-seon, to come through much more strongly. She is a North Korean defector trying to adapt to life in the South. and that shows how foreign the 2 Koreas are between themselves. This is a slice-of-life, character-driven movie where the focus is on the experience of living in complicated South Korean society.

Watching how much Korea has advanced, I increasingly see that technology doesn’t necessarily make life easier — it often complicates it even more. Everything is recorded, everything is controlled, everything has its own app and its own rules. I still appreciate, for example, my T-money card that I’ve had since 2009 and still works for all public transport in Korea. But on my last visit to Korea, I rented a car and really struggled with parking in big cities. Also since my foreign card was declined in some stores and the store didn't accept cash i couldn't buy items there.

But back to the film — the way it’s shot, with lots of scenes cut off mid-way and constantly adding new details, builds in a steady upward trajectory. By the end, I didn’t want the movie to finish. Still, I can say it found an excellent moment for a touching ending. It feels like there’s a lot more footage that was shot, and I would love to see an extended version of this beautiful movie about a beautiful soul who continues to move forward in life despite all the obstacles. Hana is a true inspiration.

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