By Natalie Gregory
So Yong Kim’s Treeless Mountain follows two young Korean sisters, Jin and Bin, and their transient lifestyle. Their mother leaves them with their aunt to search for their father, whose absence is unexplained. What’s remarkable is how Kim captures the independence experienced by these young girls (Jin, the elder sister, is six). The film is told mainly from Jin’s perspective, following her as she mourns the absence of her mother and ponders how to protect her sister. As they are passed to their aunt, the girls’ are told that their mother will return when their piggy bank is full. They sell grasshoppers to quicken the process and begin to fill the bank in hopes of their mother’s return. Jin’s realizations of her and her sister’s reality are heartbreaking. In the end, the pair ends up in a happier home, but have grown up all too quickly. Evoking emotions without the benefit of an overbearing musical score, it is a thoughtful, melancholy picture.
Treeless Mountain opens Fri/15 in Bay Area theaters.