A Girl at My Door

A GIRL AT MY DOOR is a slice of filmed misery lit that comes to us courtesy of South Korea. It's a typically controversial little film from that country, featuring some stand-out performances from the lead characters and a whole lot of bad stuff going on. As is usual for this country's film-making, there's a professional slickness to the production, a real feeling of quality to it, that makes it watchable despite the grimness of the subject matter.

The film reminded me a little of BREATHLESS except this time around it's a little girl who's getting regularly beaten by her father. Incidentally, the girl is played by the cute kid from THE MAN FROM NOWHERE, looking remarkably grown up. The film chronicles her relationship with flawed cop Doona Bae, who must be playing the most damaged and miserable character of her lengthy career. What follows is dark but humanised, with some nice and touching moments in the mix. The ending has some very controversial and unappetising moments that appear to have alienated some reviewers on this site, but it does end in a strong way. A GIRL AT MY DOOR isn't an easy watch, but then nobody said it was going to be.