South Korean film “Shine” is curiously somber and distant in terms of story and character. While it seems to care about its main characters at times, it also often observes them from the distance without delving that much into whatever they think or feel behind their phlegmatic appearance, and the result is not interesting enough to hold our interest during its 2-hour running time.

The story is set in one small village located in Jeju Island, and the early part of the movie focuses on the melancholic sadness and grief of an adolescent girl named Ye-seon (Jang Hae-geum), who has recently lost her dear grandmother. Although her grandmother was under the good care of two kind local nuns of a local Catholic church before she eventually passed away, Ye-seon cannot help but miss her grandmother because there is no adult figure to stay around her in their little house.

At least, there are several persons who really care about Ye-seon’s welfare. Her schoolmate/best friend Da-hee (Chae Yo-won) tries to cheer up Ye-seon a bit, and we later see Da-hee and two other friends of theirs visiting Ye-seon’s residence, but Ye-seon does not seem to welcome them much as putting more distance between them. In case of those two nuns, Sister Rafaella (Jang Sun) and Sister Stella (Jang Eun-kyung), they also check on Ye-seon from time to time, but they also feel some distance between them between her despite their sincere efforts of reaching closer to her.

In the end, Ye-seon comes to open her heart a bit at one night, and things get a bit better as winter is over and then summer begins on the island. Ye-seon becomes a bit more spirited than before as hanging around with her friends more than before, and they later come to have a little mountain picnic time along with Sister Rafaella and Stella, who gladly accompany them as their chaperones (We never get to know about the parents of Ye-seon’s friends, by the way).

And there comes an unexpected change into Ye-seon’s daily life. We see a little girl suddenly coming out of the church and being led to Ye-seon’s house, and both Ye-seon and Da-hee are certainly suddenly surprised to see this little girl. While they do not know anything about this little girl, they decide to take care of her instead of whoever abandoned her, and they even lie to Sister Rafaella and Stella as pretending that that little girl is the daughter of Ye-seon’s currently absent uncle.

However, Sister Rafaella and Stella have some reservation about what Ye-seon told her, especially after they try to reach to Ye-seon’s absent uncle for a matter involved with Ye-seon’s future. Nonetheless, they do not have any problem in helping Ye-seon taking care of that little girl, who seems to be totally fine with being under the care of Ye-seon and others around her.

Of course, the situation soon becomes a bit more complicated for the reason some of you already have guessed. After coming to learn that it is not all right to let Ye-seon take care of that little girl, Sister Rafaella and Stella become quite conflicted about what to do about her problematic circumstance, and Ye-seon also comes to face the emotional consequence of her rather unwise action later in the story.

This sounds like a nice setup for melodramatic moments to come, but the movie adamantly keeps everything in a distant low-key tone. While the camera looks like more interested in capturing those lovely locations of Jeju Island than focusing on the main characters, the main cast members stick to their understated mode without conveying that much to us, and it may take some time for you to gather the relationships among the main characters in the story.

Although this restrained storytelling approach is admirable to some degree, the movie unfortunately ends up scratching the surface without really letting us get to know its main characters. While Ye-seon often feels too distant and passive as the center of the story, the other main characters around her are also rather flat and superficial, and a little moment involved with a visiting photographer feels redundant without much purpose, except for emphasizing how soothing the village really is.

I can only appreciate how Jang Hae-geum and several other main cast members fill their under-developed roles as much as possible. While Jang manages to bring some life and personality to her character, Jang-sun and Jung Eun-kyung did a decent job of embodying their characters’ wholesome kindness, and Chae Yo-won also has her own small moment despite her seemingly thankless supporting role.

“Shine” is the fifth feature of director/writer Park Suk-young, who drew my attention for his two previous films “Steel Flower” (2015) and “Ash Flower” (2016). While these two films are engaging for solid storytelling and strong characters to remember, “Shine” feels relatively less impressive despite showing some technical competence, and it only reminds me of what a nice place Jeju Island is. Although I visited there for a few days of family vacation months ago, and I am now willing to visit there soon again just for checking several locations shown in “Shine”. but I seriously doubt whether that is enough for making me re-evaluate the movie later.