Film Review: A Girl At My Door (18) (South Korea 2014) (Director: July Jung) (Korean with English Subtitles), Filmhouse, Screen Two, Edinburgh, Thursday 20.08.2015, 18:10

This is a rarity from South Korea, being a film by a female director that also contains elements about homosexuality. The film begins with  a female police chief arriving at a new post in a remote fishing village. The film contains themes regarding child abuse and how communities make allowances for this sort of thing, alcoholism and the manipulative prejudice directed towards someone for what could be seen as the merest public display of sexually transgressive behaviour. The film also has plot development hinge on the community assuming that if someone is homosexual then any interest they show in trying to assist someone who is younger than them and of the same sex must be sexually based. 

I felt that the film managed a very fine balance of these differing elements. I also felt that the film did a fine job of capturing the sorts of maladaptive behaviour that can be displayed by someone who has experienced verbal, physical and possibly sexual abuse for a very long time. 

The subject matters I felt to be sensitively handled and the film never veered into gratuitous sensationalising. The film also left me as a viewer with many elements to ponder. A fine piece of film making and highly recommended. 

Rating: 10/10.