Raising her young son Dong-hyun (Dohyun Noel Hwang) in Vancouver’s suburbs in the 90s, So-young (Choi Seung-yoon), a South Korean immigrant and single mom, desperately wants to instill a sense of pride in the boy. In turn, he only wants to be considered “Canadian” in hopes of avoiding bullying at school. As Dong-hyun (now played by Ethan Hwang) grows older, his frustrations over knowing nothing about his father are only exasperated when So-young introduces a surrogate patriarch into his life. A cruel twist of fate sends the pair back to South Korea, where all will be revealed about the family’s history.
Elegantly interweaving social realism with fable-like sequences, Anthony Shim (Daughter, VIFF 2019) makes sublime use of Christopher Lew’s glorious cinematography and Andrew Yong Hoon Lee’s expressive score to craft a film that’s both emotionally and sensorially rich. Wedding autobiographical elements with more universal concerns, he likewise achieves an exquisite balance between Dong-hyun and So-young’s perspectives. The generosity extended to his characters makes the ensuing drama all the more rewarding.
Platform Award, TIFF 2022
Q&A Sept 30 & Oct 3
Presented by
Media Partner
Choi Seung-yoon, Ethan Hwang, Dohyun Noel Hwang, Anthony Shim, Hunter Dillon, Jerina Son
Canada
2022
In English and Korean with English subtitles
Racial Discrimination
At Vancouver Playhouse
At The Rio
Book Tickets
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
2026 Oscar® Shorts (Documentary)
Don't come to the program of Oscar®-nominated documentary shorts for escapism. But let's talk about the Canadian contender, Perfectly a Strangeness, featuring an abandoned observatory and three donkeys. More of this, please.
The Secret Agent
Having run afoul of an influential bureaucrat in Brazil’s military dictatorship circa 1977, Marcelo decamps to Recife to live under an assumed name — but he’ll soon come to understand precisely how rampant the country’s corruption has become.
Montreal, ma belle
In this Valentine to discovering love later in life, the ever-elegant Joan Chen plays Feng Xia, a 53-year-old Chinese immigrant and mother in Montreal whose world is turned upside down when she meets and falls in love with a young Quebecoise.
The Voice of Hind Rajab
Mixing documentary and reenactment, this film powerfully evokes the desperate attempts of the Red Crescent to rescue a six year old child trapped in a car under Israeli military fire. Oscar nominee: Best International Film
Credits
Executive Producer
Matt Kerr, Charlie Kerr, Giuliana Bertuzzi
Producer
Anthony Shim, Rebecca Steele, Bryan Demore
Screenwriter
Anthony Shim
Cinematography
Christopher Lew
Editor
Anthony Shim
Production Design
Louisa Birkin
Original Music
Andrew Yong Hoon Lee
Director
Anthony Shim
Anthony Shim immigrated to Vancouver from Seoul with his family in the early 1990s. He began his career as an actor and served as the co-founder and artistic director of Blind Pig Theatre. In 2019, Shim made his first feature film Daughter, which had its world premiere at the Vancouver International Film Festival.
Filmography: Daughter (2019)