One of the more anticipated films of the 2013 London Korean Film Festival was Lee Jun-ik’s Hope, a harrowing family drama examining the long-term effects caused by the traumatic sexual assault on a young girl by a construction worker near her school. It’s a powerful film which one won’t watch for pleasure, or indeed watch a second time. The emphasis of the film is the way the family and community rallies round to support the girl and try to heal her emotional scars. Paul Quinn over at Hangul Celluloid loved it. Entertaining it isn’t, but in its quiet, heartfelt way it is somehow rather satisfying, with great performances from Sol Kyung-gu as the father, Eom Ji-won as the mother and especially Lee Re as the daughter.
Lee Jun-ik (이준익): Hope, aka A Wish (소원, 2013) 
