The World Before
The only assured truth about summer is that it always comes to an end.
Love buds during summer on an idyllic Korean island. At least, it does for Jin (Sim Su-bin), a 17-year-old girl native to the island. Her childhood friend Dujae (Kim Eo-jin) comes back to the island after moving to Seoul. His mom, however, doesn’t show, and her absence frustrates his grief. He spends the summer occupying her empty house like a ghost, but his presence has the effect of intensifying the heat of summer for Jin.
The World Before is the third feature from director Yoon Dan-bi, and it reflects a legible continuation of her growing filmography. Best known for her first narrative film, 2019’s Moving On, which is also set during the perpetually evaporating summer season, Yoon then directed a documentary portrait of actor Lee Je-hoon (Time to Hunt), Another Record: Into the Daydream, a film where memories and dreams collide much as they do in her latest.
Jin’s infatuation with Dujae is largely symbolic of her own negotiation of self. The sparks start after a conversation with her friends, who put the two childhood acquaintances on the spot with the question all children dread: “Do you like each other?” She smiles at the idea the question conjures, imagining a near-future of them coupled in young love. But he shoots it down. “Don’t be ridiculous,” he starts, collapsing her smile. “She and I would go to the beach and run around with our clothes off,” pushing the past to the forefront. She yearns for the future; he grieves the past.
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