- Release year: 2024
- Director: Namkoong Sun.
- Producers: Lee SangHyun and the National Human Rights Commission of Korea.
- Cinematography by: Kim SunHyuk.
- Music by: Byul.org.
Synopsis: three Korean ex-idols go on a trip to figure out who they want to be now that they are retired.
Shotgun Commentary: riveting story of self-discovery and commentary on the dreadful way the idol business is structured.
Review
Time to Be Strong follows the lives of three people in their twenties. Their adolescence has been different from the average in Korea. They were selected to be idols, but didn’t make the cut for one reason or another. This led them to the situation they are in now: completely ignorant about what a regular life looks like.
Context and connection
Despite the niche topic of this film, it is quite relatable even if you are ignorant about Korean idols. This critic’s prior knowledge on the subject was essentially “Korean idol = young people singing in boy/girl bands”. So, now that you know that, you are more than equipped to watch this feature. The focus is not on their lives as retired idols, but rather on their status as survivors of a world they barely understood in the first place.
The effects of living in “the idol bubble” are different for each of them, yet extrapolable to everyone facing the world for the first time, regardless of their age. In the spotlight, you have SuMin, played by Choi SungEun. She is the leader of the trio, the most down-to-Earth and responsible one, as it were. She takes care of her ex-bandmate SaRang (Ha SeoYoon), and her ex-high-school classmate TaeHee (Hyun WooSeok). The latter is also an ex-idol, but from another band.
Battle scars
SuMin struggles with eating disorders, a lot of guilt from her past, and a huge sense of dread about the future, that complete unknown. As a result, she pushes herself to the extreme in order to try and keep as much as possible under her control. So, essentially your average teenage-girl experience. With the added trauma of an industry that thinks it is perfectly cool to do things like forbid girls from having their period, of course.
As a result of the same traumatic experience, her bandmate SaRang has developed a whole arrange of mental disorders. As well as a visible difficulty to experience social situation without a certain level of detachment. While it is possible that she had this disorders beforehand, it seems unlikely considering how hard it is to even make it to one of those bands. She would’ve likely been turned down. Nevertheless, messing up with people’s hormones and dictating even the most private parts of their existence, can very easily cause all that.
Strong roles
While SaRang is maybe not as relatable for general audiences, she does provide some comedy and thrill to the narrative, creating the perfect balance with SuMin and showcasing how different personalities deal with the same trauma. Her presence is very similar to TaeHee in the story, despite being quite different people. He is a boy who doesn’t know anything about survival in the real world, and he is also not ready to face the fact that his idol career is over. Much like plenty of young people in general, he’s scared of losing the safety of the known, especially when he realises how strange the real world is to him.
Choi, Hyun and Ha deliver wonderful performances full of passion and emotion that make you feel for them from the very beginning. Their roles are complex yet universal enough to easily recognise if they are performed wrong. Still, the three of them rise to the change and deliver a wonderful experience that is a non-stop joy to follow.
All in all, Time to Be Strong is a coming of age film that speaks, not only about the hardships of facing adulthood, but also about an outdated, cruel industry that should have changed for the better by now. It is a fun, but also heart-breaking work that will put into perspective what you know about child stars, and even possibly about yourself.
Advice to take from this movie:
- Sometime you have to jump into the unknown.
- No amount of planning will ever prepare you for life, so try not to worry too much.
- Isn’t 2025 a nice date to stop exploiting minors in the entertainment industry?
For all of you in the UK, this film will be screened in the 2025 Mint Chinese Film Festival as part of their Competition: Asian Sparks.
Further info
Time to Be Strong screening: 22nd February (Saturday), 21:00 at Keswick Alhambra Cinema.
Venue address: 36 St John’s St, Keswick. CA12 5AG, UK.
Festival Pass and tickets: find them right here!
See you there!
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