COURTESY OF LOUIS VUITTON HIFF Yeo-min is smitten by the new girl from Seoul, Jang Woo-rim, in "When I Turned Nine."

Wise film captures
the pain and promise
of childhood

Childhood isn't as easy and carefree as we'd like to admit -- or remember. The South Korean film "When I Turned Nine" follows third-grader Baek Yeo-min as he and his closest friends, the girl Ki-jong and boy Geum-bok, contend with bullies, childhood jealousy, sometimes unfair decisions by adults and even young romance.

"When I Turned Nine" South Korea, part of the festival's Eastern Showcase, playing at 1:30 p.m. Sunday at Dole Cannery Cineplex 2 1/2 Stars

In their rural school classroom, the friends' lives are shaken up by the arrival of a new girl from Seoul, Jang Woo-rim. She immediately starts bragging about her former life in America and all the gifts her father sends her from there, drawing scorn from Ki-jong.

Woo-rim is assigned the seat next to Yeo-min, and he is instantly smitten by the makeup-wearing, fashionably dressed girl.

Although Yeo-min is introduced as the "tough guy" who can easily beat a sixth-grade bully to the ground, there is something different about him that is apparent from the start. When Ki-jong and Geum-bok put on a cocky attitude, Yeo-min retains an air of dignity and compassion, even after fighting the older boy.

The third-grader secretly takes on odd jobs to scrape together the $1.30 that he needs to buy his one-eyed mother a pair of glasses. That goal keeps him driven even as it causes him trouble, bringing punishment from his mother when she discovers what he has been doing.

It is also the perfect example of the character that commands such devotion from his friends.

All the children, especially Yeo-min, still hold a charming innocence at the end of the film despite all they endure. When Woo-rim comes to a mature conclusion regarding her father and reveals the truth, the open crying of her classmates at her private sorrow is a frank contrast to the mask that Woo-rim has been wearing.

Yeo-min and Woo-rim are the perfect, though stereotypical, counterparts -- she is a sophisticated girl desperate for friendship beneath her aloof exterior, and he is an simple country boy honest in his words and actions.

Kim Seok as Yeo-min performs in a calm, almost Zen-like manner that would be tiresome if not for the compassion that he shows toward everyone. Kim Myeong-jae as Ki-jong is excellent in her portrayal of the tomboy fiercely loyal to Yeo-min and obviously in love with him. Her pain as the boy directs his affections toward the snobby Woo-rim is heartbreaking.

"When I Turned Nine" is not quite a coming-of-age film, but instead an optimistic testimonial to the resilience of children.