The Accordion Door (아코디언 도어)
Director – Son Kyeong-su – 2025 – South Korea – Cert. 12a tbc – 115m
*****
A boy loses his memories at age nine, wins prizes as a writer, and falls for the new girl at school who plays football – from LKFF, the London Korean Film Festival 2026 which runs in cinemas from Monday, November 2nd to Tuesday, November 16th
A high school drama of sorts, this starts and ends with the national youth essay competition on the subject of ‘waves’. The lad at the back of the class writes, “I was destined to be unremarkable anyway.” On his paper, he adds, am I a cloud? As a child in a flashback, Lee Ji-soo can barely master the simplest of concepts. His mother (Ok Ji-young) pays attention to him while his dad (Park Jong-hwan from Concrete Utopia, Eom Tae-hwa, 2023) is on his mobile phone.
The teenage Ji-soo (Moon Woo-jin) wipes his eyes and repeats, from the exercise he failed, “rain, river, ocean, clouds.” A cloud hovers near him, sprouts a tendril, and pokes him in the eye against a gentle guitar lament that turns into a thundering rock lament.… Read the rest
