South Korean film “Moongyeong: More than Roads” follows a little journey of healing between two different women who happen to accompany each other by coincidence. Although it will require some patience from you as your average slow movie, it will gradually engage you once you go along with its slow and reflective narrative, and you will be moved by how much they are healed and then changed around the end of the story.

At first, the movie establishes the stressful situation of one of its two main characters. Moon-gyeong (Ryu Abel) is a young woman working in some big company located somewhere in Seoul, and her little department only has two female employees besides her, but we slowly begin to sense the tension among them as they busily work on their latest company project. While it is evident that the eventual success of that project is due to the considerable efforts from one of Moon-gyeong’s two co-workers, this young woman does not receive any appreciation or recognition at all, and she is even about to be let go just because her contract period is soon going to be over.

When this young woman eventually shows her longtime discontent in front of many others in the company, she is callously disregarded by their male boss. Moon-gyeong immediately comes to defend her co-worker, but, alas, she is already too drunk, and then she finds herself hospitalized due to her serious stomach problem, which was probably caused by her ongoing stressful circumstance.

Fortunately, Moon-gyeong returns to her workplace a few days later, but that co-worker of hers is already gone, and that prompts her to do something about that. She decides to take an impromptu 3-day vacation for locating her co-worker, but she really has no idea on how to find her co-worker, because she only knows that her co-worker’s hometown is a rural town which is also named Moongyeong (The movie surely makes a bit fun of that, by the way).

Anyway, Moon-gyeong goes down to Moongyeong, and then we are introduced to a young female monk named Ga-eun (Cho Jae-kyeong), who happens to be ready to go her own way right after finishing her novice period in a big temple near to Moongyeong. She and Moon-kyeong come across each other via a little accident involved with one cute stray dog, and they soon find themselves going around here and there in the town for locating the owner of that injured stray dog. Yes, they can simply take it to a nearby animal shelter after going to a local veterinarian, but the local veterinarian tells them that it will likely get euthanized several days later, and that is certainly the last thing they want. After all, they already named it “Gil-soon”, and the dog already becomes quite friendly to them.

As these two women come to spend more time with each other as taking care of Gil-soon together, the movie slowly immerses us into the soothing rural atmosphere surrounding them, and we are not so surprised when Moon-gyeong and Ga-eun come to open themselves more to each other as two different persons with each own emotional scar to deal with. While Moon-gyeong is still concerned a lot about her co-worker, Ga-eun later confides to Moon-gyeong about how she decided to become a monk after one terrible incident which still haunts her mind, and they come to bond more with each other as becoming more reflective about their current status.

The main subject of the story becomes more evident to us when Moon-gyeong and Ga-eun subsequently come to stay at the house of one generous old lady who happens to mistake Gil-soon for her recently lost dog. This old lady has lived with an adolescent granddaughter of hers, and it is apparent from the beginning that her dear granddaughter has some serious emotional issue. As she and Ga-eun come to spend more time with their kind host, Moon-gyeong becomes more curious about this young troubled girl, and, what do you know, she later gets to know a little more about this young troubled girl mainly thanks to Gil-soon.

Although the mood becomes a bit melodramatic around the finale, the movie sticks to its pensive attitude as showing more care and attention to its main characters, and its two lead actresses diligently carries the movie together. Ryu Abel, who previously appeared in South Korean independent film “Seire” (2021), ably depicts her character’s exhausted mental condition, and that is why it is touching to see how her character gets more brightened and relaxed bit by bit along the story. On the opposite, Cho Jae-kyeong, who incidentally makes a debut here in this film, effectively complements her co-star with her gentle tranquility, and we will probably see more of her considerable talent during next several years. In case of several main cast members of the movie, Choi Soo-min, Chae Seo-an, and Kim Ju-a are also solid in their respective supporting parts, and the special mention must go to that dog in the film, which effortlessly steals the show whenever it is on the screen.

Overall, “Moongyeong: More than Roads” is a typical road movie, but its slow journey is packed with enough mood and details under the competent direction of director/writer Shin Dong-il, who drew my attention for the first time with “Host & Guest” (2005) and “My Friend & His Wife” (2006) but has been less active during last several years since “Come, Together” (2016). Although this is not his best work in my humble opinion, it is still good enough for recommendation, and you certainly should check it out if you want to be soothed a bit for a while.