The Second Child (2025)

Unbelievable

Unbelievable. The story of the film is like something out of a picture book — it looks cool on paper, but unrealistic and unconvincing in reality, and in this case, in the movie adaptation. The movie actually mixes a fictional story about a shadow with a family drama about the loss of a child/sister, but the connection between reality and fiction isn’t successful. The beginning was even promising, but as it went on, it became harder and harder to keep the interest. The plot moves slowly, and I wouldn’t say the characters earned that pace by their performances, nor did the film manage to convey real emotion like some better-quality slow-burn movies do. There are elements that contribute to the mystery, but the finale wraps everything up suddenly and strangely without any sense that something meaningful was achieved. Also the CGI elements weren't implemented very good. Maybe the whole fantasy is actually a metaphor for human emotions or something, but I couldn’t figure it out. I’d say: an interesting attempt, but it didn’t work.

I watched the film in the cinema with one Korean soldier. We were the only two people in the theater, and at the end of the movie we just looked at each other and commented: “What is this movie?”

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