I was disappointed to see that South Korean independent film “Juhee from 5 to 7” does not focus on its titular heroine as much as I expected from its very title. Here is a potentially interesting female figure to illustrate throughout its rather short running time (76 minutes), but the movie does not seem to trust its heroine and lead actress that much as often looking around some other characters more than necessary.

At first, the movie seems to be all about Juhee (Kim Joo-ryoung), a middle-aged college professor of theater who receives a bad news about her current medical condition during the opening scene. Her doctor explains to her that she needs to do a biopsy because of a possible malignant breast tumor, and she cannot help but become quite concerned as she returns to the college around 5 PM.

Yes, as many of you may have already guessed, this is not so different from the beginning of Agnès Varda’s classic film “Cléo from 5 to 7” (1962). In that great movie, its young artist heroine also becomes very nervous as waiting for her result of some important medical test to confirm whether she actually has a cancer or not, and her nervous desperation becomes more palpable to us along the story as the time for the confirmation on her medical test result is approaching minute by minute.

While “Cléo from 5 to 7” steadily sticks to its heroine from the beginning to the end, “Juhee from 5 to 7” is not fully committed to its heroine to my big dissatisfaction. Sure, the movie shows a bit more of its heroine as she interacts with one minor supporting character after another along the story, but its focus is also frequently shifted to several substantial supporting characters in the story, and the movie sometimes feels like being more about them instead of her.

One of these substantial supporting characters in the film is Juhee’s ex-husband Ho-jin (Moon Ho-jin), an actor who has been the leader of a small independent troupe for years. When the movie introduces him to us, he is preparing for the performance of a new play written by him, and we gradually come to gather that his play is inspired a lot by his problematic relationship with his ex-wife. Probably because of how much the play feels personal to him, Ho-jin often becomes quite demanding to a group of young performers working and studying under him, and he is particularly harsh to one of them just because he is not satisfied enough with the strenuous efforts from that young performer in question.

It is certainly interesting for us to muse on how much Ho-jun’s fiction is actually overlapped with his past with Juhee, but this feels rather distracting in my trivial opinion. We are supposed to get to know more about its titular heroine, but Ho-jin’s narrative often interrupts her narrative instead of complementing hers, and the movie eventually comes to distance itself more from its heroine as deliberately blurring the line between fiction and reality around the end of the story. While there are some nice surreal touches to be appreciated around that narrative point, they feel rather superficial instead of bringing more depth to the story and its titular character, and that is the main reason why the epilogue scene is not as dramatically effective as intended.

Anyway, the movie works whenever it fully pays attention to its titular heroine, and those several episodic moments of hers in the film are engaging in each own way. While we are touched when a female student drops by Juhee’s office for showing some sincere gratitude, we are amused when Juhee happens to have a brief talk with her fellow female professor, and we are saddened when Juhee is later visited by her mother and young daughter. While she does not say anything about her possibly grim medical condition to either of them, Juhee is clearly worried about these two family members of hers, and there is a poignant moment as she and her mother come to have a brief but honest conversation between them.

It is a shame that the movie does not utilize more of her considerable talent and presence, but Kim Joo-ryoung, who previously collaborated with director/writer/cinematographer/co-editor Jang Kun-jae in “Sleepless Night” (2012) and recently drew more attention for her substantial supporting turn in South Korean Netflix drama series “Squid Game”, leaves enough impression with her gracefully restrained performance at least. Unlike the film itself, she is quite focused on her character’s life and personality to the end, and I would not complain at all if the movie were absolutely committed to her character without showing anything else. In case of several other main cast members in the film, Moon Ho-jin is well-cast as Juhee’s ex-husband although the movie could be less about his character, and Park Hye-jin has her own small moment as Juhee’s mother later in the film.

In conclusion, “Juhee from 5 to 7” is a fairly competent work which has some good elements including its lead actress’ admirable efforts, but I don’t think it is as satisfying as Jang’s previous films “Sleepless Night” (2012) and “A Midsummer’s Fantasia” (2014), which I happened to choose as the best South Korean film of 2015. Because it was not a total waste of time at all, I will let you decide whether you should check it out or not, but I still have doubts on whether the movie really tries to delve into its titular heroine’s life and personality, and I would rather recommend you to watch Jang’s two aforementioned movies or “Cléo from 5 to 7” instead.