Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Approved for Adoption




"Approved for Adoption," a childhood remembrance by director Jung Henin, is a stylistic mishmash composed mostly of animation, with a few archival newsreels and a bit of newly-shot video footage of Henin today.

Jung was born in Korea but, like thousands of other children, adopted by foreigners after the Korean War ended. In his case, this meant Belgian parents and four white, French-speaking siblings (and, later, one more Korean for a sister). The main problem for us in the audience is that the young Jung's a brat, more interested in acting out than learning up. This leads to increasingly uncomfortable sequences of corporal punishment by his mother, and to what end? I didn't enjoy this one at all.

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