Moving On (2019) - Yoon Dan-bi

​A sharp debut, Yoon Dan-bi's Moving On is a beautifully rendered familial story that traverses the coming of age motif with a subtle conviction that feels like it could only come from a deeply personal place. Koreeda comparisons are apt but Dan-bi's authorship is very much her own, exhibiting an innate ability to project the interiority of these characters through visual design rooted in naturalism and experience - there is little artifice to be found here. The spatiality of the family home is beautifully expressive due to an acute directorial vision. Interior spaces reverberate with the understated emotional strife of these characters, both young and old who attempt to navigate the realities of life in which personal attainment and desire often conflict with the external nature of communal living. From the economic to the social, our reality is full of barriers that are completely out of control, and what Moving On crafts through its coming of age framework is a story that is never contrived, deeply personal, but wonderfully universal. Life is about compromise, mortality sculpts empathy, and Moving On never feels the need to expound its ideas, it trusts that the viewer will relate to the experience, and given how astute the film is at detailing the small transgressions and unspoken familial conflict that arises in an honest and understated way, I can't imagine this film not leaving an emotional mark on anyone who experiences it.