Square Review
Square (2025) Film Review from the 24th Annual Tribeca Film Festival, a movie written and directed by Kim Bo-sol and starring Lee Chan-yong, Lee Ga-young, Jeon Woon-jong and Lee Yoo-jun.
Square from filmmaker Kim Bo-sol is an emotional and stunning cinematic achievement in terms of the way it moves its audience through its wringing story of heartbreak and despair. Examining the strength of a romance set against a charged North Korean backdrop, the characters are well-conceived and the plot is one with great depth that helps drive the picture’s story line towards an inevitable, but powerful, conclusion that sheds light on some of the aspects of a political system that tends to undermine the need for companionship and ignores the complexities of the human condition.
Isak Borg is the name of the central character in the film: A young, blonde, blue-eyed Swedish diplomat stationed in North Korea. Borg doesn’t suffer from poor finances, but has a yearning for companionship that finds itself quenched by a friendship that is formed with a traffic officer named Seo Bok-joo. This movie focuses on the connection between Borg and Seo Bok-joo that does turn romantic in nature. This film’s plot develops a bond between them, but the movie pulls the rug out from underneath the beauty it portrays in that relationship when the two soul mates are torn apart as Seo Bok-joo abruptly disappears from her station, leaving Borg floored and emotionally distressed as a result.
Lee Myung-jun is Borg’s interpreter, a man sworn to abide by his duties. This character of the interpreter is the most complex one in the film. He is torn between helping Borg and the obligations that he is expected to uphold in the name of loyalty to his country. To call him a friend of Borg may not seem right, but he doesn’t lack human feelings despite his hard exterior. He sees the joy that Seo Bok-joo brings Borg. Eventually, after examining the despair that Borg endures, the film plays much like a thriller as Borg must risk it all for another chance to see the love of his life, Seo Bok-joo.
Square is intense and powerful in its examination of North Korea and how its politics get in the way of a seemingly innocuous relationship that many suspect could have more implications than meets the eye. Sometimes, love is love and that is not an understandable context in the complex political world that the movie portrays. Seo Bok-joo and Borg are well-drawn characters, but the movie isn’t about their interactions for long. Rather, it’s the story of the consequences of those interactions which affect the lives of the three central characters forever.
I loved one particular scene where the powers that be are chasing Borg at a train station to ensure he doesn’t get to his destination of seeing Seo Bok-joo again. They look for Borg’s distinctive blonde hair, but that proves to be deceptive as Borg may have a trick up his sleeve to manipulate those powers that be which prevent him from living his life to the fullest and achieving total happiness.
Though the interpreter plays a large part in the story, he seems a bit stilted despite his ability to try to help Borg. As he ends up actually helping Borg, he puts his own situation in jeopardy all in the name of true love. Borg and Seo Bok-joo share some great moments together and the interpreter doesn’t seem fully aware of his own emotions but recognizes the signs of romance blossoming when he sees it and he chooses to embrace those signs.
Square is a complex human drama that plays out with terrific precision and its attention to detail is one of its strong points. If there is a flaw in the movie, it can be that it has an emotionally draining structure to it. That is also an asset, but, in a way, it is a slight barrier to the film’s grand aspirations to be a wholly successful love story. It’s easy, at times, for the filmmakers to present the film as more of a political statement than a love story until the moving ending arrives and turns the viewer’s expectations around completely. Whereas the romance will move the viewer, the film is much more than simply just a love story.
It must be said that the dramatic tension here is so strongly conveyed, the audience is bound to be on pins and needles as they anxiously await the outcome regarding whether or not the two lovers will see each other one last time before they part ways, most likely forever. Square is a reminder to be thankful for the freedoms we may have because not every couple is guaranteed to be granted the dream to achieve the power of love. It’s ultimately a formidable story of triumphing against the odds, if only for a single day. Square must be seen for its beauty and its sorrow which the movie delicately balances and the film will certainly not leave the viewer untouched. It’s an emotional triumph.
Rating: 8.5/10
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