In 2003 a film was released entitled, The Crescent Moon directed by Kil-soo Chang. A director will not find a more difficult task than to effectively direct children having them achieve and effective and memorable performance. At times as a viewer, you find yourself feeling as though your are witnessing real cruelty and children making absent minded decisions not out of maliciousness but out of ignorance of the consequences.
Plot
Nan-na lives with his grandma in Gugyul-li, a small seaside village. The year he turns four, Nan-na gets confused by the sudden appearance of his sister, Oh-gi. His grandma makes him take care of his new baby sister, so he starts to hate her as he can’t play war games anymore. As Oh-gi grows older, she develops a humpback due to malnutrition. In his childishness, Nan-na is ashamed of Oh-gi and does not let her anywhere near his school. But then Oh-gi is sent to grandma’s sister for the time being. Though his sister, whose presence was annoying to him, is is finally out of sight, Nan-na secretly goes to see her from time to time, but never dares to talk to her. When grandma recovers and opens a market stall, the family is reunited and Nan-na and Oh-gi jump for joy. But when Nan-na accidentally finds out that Oh-gi is his half-sister, Nan-na childishly starts mistreating her again, feeling a sense of distance from her. So, he takes the unwilling sister to the bakery, pushes her inside and runs away. But then, his uncle tells him the jolting truth that they were merely guessing about his mother. Nan-na runs straight away to the bakery but Oh-gi has already been sent off to a city-operated juvenile shelter…
Yes Crescent Moon is a movie that can be gut wrenching because of how children can be cruel one second and loving the next. But what makes this movie interesting is the ability to make you reflect as an audience the cruelty we as children can sink to while searching for the forgiveness for the we all yearn.
The Crescent Moon can be seen on Amazon Prime.
