It has taken seven short films and over a decade for director He Shuming to finally make his debut feature, but if this is the taste of things to come, more of his unhurried, amusing, and lived-in slice-of-life portraits will definitely be welcome. Selected as Singapore’s official Oscar entry, Ajoomma arrives wrapped in a package of wacky dramedy, but blooms into something unexpectedly affecting, with a warmth that goes down like a bowl of spicy tteokbokki on a cold winter day.
Three years have passed since Lim Bee-Hua’s (Hong Huifang) husband died, and her life in Singapore has settled into a comfortable, predictable routine. As is the custom in Asia, she’s addressed as Auntie (the Korean translation serves as the film’s title), a sign that she has settled into the long stretch of middle age. Auntie is a familiar face with the shopkeepers she regularly frequents, and she fills her days with dance classes, doting on her grown son Sam (Shane Pow), and feeding an insatiable obsession for K-dramas. That passion is behind a long-planned, eagerly anticipated trip with Sam to South Korea to finally experience up close the country she’s only seen on screen. But Sam cancels at the last minute to travel to America for a job interview, all the while wondering how to tell his mother about his boyfriend, a secret she has already discovered on her own. Auntie’s initial disappointment turns into an unexpected adventure when, upon learning the tickets are non-refundable, she decides to take the trip on her own.
From the tropical climes of Singapore, Auntie arrives in wintry Korea as the country prepares for the Lunar New Year, and almost immediately gets thrust into a series of screwball contrivances that miraculously stay on the right side of bending belief. She becomes separated from her tour group, without her phone, and armed with only the limited amount of Korean she knows from TV shows. Auntie is taken in by Jung Su (Jung Dong-Hwan), a kindly security guard who lives alone with his elderly, ailing dog, and a flicker of companionship soon sparks between them. The threads of the story eventually see them reconnecting with tour guide operator Kwon Woo (Kang Hyung Suk), who is desperately trying to fix his marriage, provide for his six-year-old daughter, and keep loan sharks off his back. Together, the trio forms a temporary makeshift family providing each other with an unspoken support system they didn’t know they needed.
Ajoomma manages the tricky feat of deploying a freewheeling, fish-out-of-water story with an uncommonly gentle rhythm. He Shuming displays an assured maturity for this first feature, with a restrained, unfussed approach even when the story is at its most frantic. The filmmaker wisely moves in time within the soft glow of Hong Huifang’s charming lead performance, who similarly opts for modest choices even in the most feverish set pieces, and is supported by the equally sensitive work of her co-stars. The result is a film that’s sneakily poignant and stays anchored to an authentic emotional tenor. Perhaps the picture’s only unnecessary elements are the occasional cuts to scenes from Auntie’s favorite K-drama. These highly-pitched melodramatic segments are utilized both as an extra comedic note and as a loose parallel to the familial complications in the actual movie, but offer no extra thematic depth.
Some may find echoes of Sebastian Lelio’s Gloria in Ajoomma, right down to Auntie having her own signature song (“Women’s Generation” by SeeYa, Davichi and T-ARA), albeit working in a much more crowd-pleasing register. The picture also belongs to the same fabric as producer Anthony Chen’s debut Ilo Ilo in how it examines the dynamics of family, particularly the relationships between parents and children. What these pictures all share in common is refusing to wrap their narratives with neatly arranged answers. Screenwriters He Shuming and Kris Ong don’t cheapen Ajoomma — or their titular character — by forcing easy resolutions; they understand that figuring out the second act of your life is just as complicated as sorting out the first one.
Director: He Shuming
Screenplay: He Shuming, Kris Ong
Cast: Hong Huifang, Jung Dong-Hwan, Kang Hyung Suk, Shane Pow, Yeo Jingoo
Producers: Anthony Chen
Cinematography: Hwang Gyeonghyeon
Editing: Jasmine Ng, Armiliah Aripin
Music: Ting Si Hao
Production companies: Giraffe Pictures (Singapore), The Whale Company (Singapore), Singapore Film Commission (Singapore), Korean Film Council (South Korea), Seoul Film Commission (South Korea)
World sales: Rediance
In Mandarin, Korean, English
90 minutes
