South Korean independent film “The Gorals” is a modest but likable coming-of-age tale about four different high school girls banding together for their little mission to accomplish. As they bounce from one point to another along the story, the movie cheerfully swings between comedy and drama, and we are amused more while also rooting for them more than before.

At the beginning, we are introduced to the four main characters of the story one by one: In-hye (Park Hye-jin), Seo-hee (Lee Seung-yeon), Jeong-ae (Park Hyo-eun), and Soo-min (Choi Soo-in). Although they do not have anything particularly common among them, they happen to be gathered together by the head of the college admissions office in their high school due to their rather underachieving school score records, and they are soon demanded to prepare together more for the upcoming college entrance examination and the following admission interview.

However, unlike many of their other schoolmates, these four girls do not have much plan or wish about whatever they want to do next after their eventual graduation. In case of In-hye, all she cares about for now is taking care of those ducks and rabbits in a little kennel of the school, and she even named each of them already.

When she subsequently joins In-hye as a punishment on a little minor transgression of hers, Seo-hee is not so interested in handling those animals in the kennel at first, but then she comes to care about them more than expected when she and In-hye are notified later that the kennel and its inhabitants will be eliminated sooner or later. Once they find a remote spot inside a nearby forest, they begin to plan on taking all those animals in the kennel to the new one to be built on that spot by them, and Jeong-ae and Soon-min later join them just because they also need something to lighten them up a bit as tediously preparing for their college entrance.

Although they are rather clumsy at the beginning, these four girls, whose group is incidentally named “The Gorals” later, gradually improve their private kennel bit by bit. Mainly thanks to Jeong-ae’s farmer father, they can easily get a number of materials for building the kennel, and everything goes fairly well for them as they willingly and harmoniously work together, though they need to be really careful about handling all those animals to be saved by them (The movie assures us at the beginning that no animal was harmed or injured during the shooting, by the way).

Once the kennel is completed, the girls come to bond with each other more as spending more time together in their little shelter, but, not so surprisingly, there come several troubles from the world outside. In-hye has been in a relationship with a very selfish boy who does not have much consideration for her, and we are not so surprised when he threatens to expose her and her friends’ shelter at one point. In addition, their private kennel later becomes a very serious matter due to an unexpected epidemic of a certain animal disease in their area, and they eventually take a lot more risk just for doing what should be done in their viewpoint.

Instead of hurrying its story and characters more, screenplay by director/writer Yoo Jaa-wook, who previously co-directed “Limecrime” (2020) before making a solo debut here in this movie, leisurely doles out a series of small moments for more character development. While In-hye functions as the center of the story, her three friends come to show more life and personality via their respective personal moments, and we come to care more about them when they attempt something not so legal around the end of the story. Despite a few narrative hiccups, the story balances itself fairly well between humor and gravitas, and it is touching to see how its four main characters become more matured and confident in the end. Yes, things remain mostly uncertain for them as before, but they are quite ready to step forward and face whatever may come next for them, respectively.

The movie is steadily supported by the good chemistry among its four principal cast members. While Park Hye-jin, who previously appeared in “The Slug” (2020) and “Gyeong-ah’s Daughter” (2022), dutifully holds the center as required, Lee Seung-yoen, Park Hyo-eun, and Choi Soo-in, who was simply unforgettable as the little young heroine of “The World of Us” (2016), have each own moments to shine, and they always click well together as their characters push or pull each other along the story. In case of a group of several animal performers in the movie, they instantly steal the show from time to time, and the special mention goes to a duck named “Hee-seon”, which turns out to have a little surprise for our girls later in the story.

On the whole, “The Gorals” does not aim that high, but it accomplishes its goals as much as intended at least. Although it could be improved a bit more in my humble opinion, its several minor weak aspects are mostly compensated by the youthful charm and spirit generated among its four lovable main characters, who have sort of grown on me after I watched it yesterday. In short, this is one of more interesting South Korean films of this year, and I certainly recommend you to give it a chance someday.