Among all the people you know, how many do you understand? This question, posed by a teacher, visibly stirs 14-year-old Eun-hee (Ji-hu Park). Despite being surrounded by classmates, teachers, and family members, few seem to truly see her — or bother trying to look closely. “House of Hummingbird” takes viewers inside the teenager’s life as she struggles to understand and be understood.
Set in 1994 Seoul and written and directed by Bora Kim, the semi-autobiographical coming-of-age drama sees Eun-hee find kinship with Young-ji (Sae-byuk Kim), her compassionate new female tutor. Written off unfairly as a troublemaker by her male teacher who describes her classmates as stupid, Eun-hee is struck by meeting an adult who seems genuinely curious about her and treats her as more than just a receptacle to impart knowledge into. While the other adults in Eun-hee’s life try to control and constrain her, Young-ji encourages her to build her self-esteem. “It takes some time to learn to like yourself,” she tells her.
The tutor’s kindness serves as a much-needed lifeline for the girl, whose verbally and physically abusive father and brother make home an unstable, and oftentimes frightening, place for she, her older sister, and their mother.
Kim told us that “House of Hummingbird” all started with a nightmare she had while doing her MFA in New York.
“At the time I was living in a foreign country for the first time while learning a new language and working on a master’s degree. During this period, I felt very unstable and started having this dream about going back to middle school again. It felt like a total nightmare. Every time I woke from the nightmare, I felt so relieved that it was only a dream,” she emphasized. “The unease I was feeling at grad school was bringing back my past memories and traumas from middle school — a period during which I was most unstable. I realized there was something going on in that period of my life, and I started to dig into the memories.”
Given how real the world of “House of Hummingbird” and its protagonist feel, it comes as no surprise that this personal excavation served as the basis for the film.
“House of Hummingbird” opens in Kino Marquee, a virtual theatrical platform, starting today. It was named Best International Narrative Feature at Tribeca Film Festival. The film also won the Grand Prix for Best Feature Film at the Berlin International Film Festival Generation 14plus and NETPAC and Audience awards at the Busan International Film Festival.
