Maeil Kyungje reporter doesn’t hesitate to criticize Song Joong-ki’s comeback movie “My name is Loh Kiwan.”
Korean media outlet Maeil Kyungje’s reporter Han Hyun-jang recently wrote a review on Song Joong-ki’s new movie “My name is Loh Kiwan.” “If you are not a fan of Song Joong-ki, I would not want to recommend “Loh Kiwan,” a tiring non-healing romance movie,” she said.
“My name is Loh Kiwan” tells the story of Ki-wan (Song Joong-ki), a North Korean defector. After coming to Belgium, a strange land with the price of his mother’s life, he struggles to be recognized as a refugee. There he meets Marie (Choi Seong-eun), a wandering woman who lost the reason for her life.
According to Han Hyun-jang, Song Joong-ki successfully expresses Kiwan’s despair of surviving and the deep and raw feelings toward Marie in density. However, his acting in North Korean dialect has its ups and downs. Although the drama heralded “Song’s breakthrough transformation,” his acting does not feel as new as the movie’s loud promotions.
Choi Sung-eun, who showed off unique girl crush charm in the movie “Start-Up,” presents a darker version of herself in this movie. She also shows stable melodrama chemistry with Song Joong-ki portraying Marie who gave up her life due to her mother’s death. However, the limitations of the character’s narrative makes the latter part of the story gets less and less interesting. The more the mystery is revealed, the less attractive the character and the story’s appeal are, as Han claims.
Crucially, the charm of the movie’s melodrama genre falls far short of expectations. Although the characters are claimed to have a touching romantic story in which they take care of each other, the cast only portrays the desperate setting in a lengthy manner. There is no tension or tumultuous climax. It is not even touching as it leads from a weak ending to a sudden ending.
According to Han’s review, eventually the “romance” that should be a ray of light in the midst of desperate pain collapsed, leaving only the gloominess. The movie’s setting and background that do not fit the current era stand out as boring. “I managed to end the show after several stops while squeezing my dry desire to watch,” Han said. “Only Lee Sang-hee, a supporting actress who showed overwhelming performance, stands out,” she added.
