South Korean independent film “Coming of Age” is a familiar mix of comedy drama. Mainly revolving around one problematic father and daughter relationship, the movie looks around not only its two main characters but also several other family members of theirs, and it is alternatively humorous and poignant as closely examining their lives and relationships.

The two main characters of the story are a middle-aged man named Cheol-taek (Ki Joo-bong) and his young adult daughter Jeong-mi (Ha Yoon-kyung). Right from his very first scene in the film, we see how casual Cheol-taek has been in his daily life, and we are not so surprised to learn later that he has been living alone by himself for many years since his wife Hyeon-sook (Yang Mal-bok) left him for living her own life away from him.

And then there comes an unexpected problem for Cheol-taek on one day. His recent medical examination shows that he has been on a very late stage of thymus cancer, and he surely needs somebody to help and support him during his following medical treatment period. Fortunately, Jeong-mi, who is his only child and has incidentally earned her meager living via working as an actress, is willing to be around him as much as possible, but Cheol-taek does not think that he really needs her help, while not worrying that much about his current medical condition.

However, once his medical treatment begins, the possibility of his mortality comes closer to Cheol-taek than before. His physical condition becomes more and more deteriorated due to his ongoing chemotherapy, and we get a little funny moment of dark humor between him and one of his fellow chemotherapy patients. While he subsequently gets a chance for considerable recovery, that understandably costs a lot of money, and this certainly puts much more burden on Jeong-mi, who soon finds herself a lot more frustrated and exasperated as taking care of her father day by day.

Ieong-mi and his father eventually consider getting some financial help from several family members of theirs, who are not so willing to do that for each own personal reason. Hyeon-sook, who has been enjoying her own life more after her retirement, is not so pleased about getting involved again with the man who was nothing but a headache for her before their eventual separation, though they are still technically married to each other on the record. She does not give much damn about him, but she cares a lot about her daughter nonetheless, and that makes her feel more conflicted about her husband’s grim circumstance.  

In case of Cheol-taek’s older brother Gwan-taek (Kim Jong-goo), he may be affluent enough to help Cheol-taek to some degree at least, but he cares more about the welfare of his own family. Gwan-taek’s adult son and his family, who are living with Gwan-taek, have clearly depended a lot on Gwan-taek’s financial support, and even his little grandson notices how his parents try to please and indulge his grandfather as much as possible.

As often generating humor and absurdity from the strained relationships among the family characters in the story, the movie lightly bounces from one episodic moment to another for more character development. While they spend more time with each other due to Cheol-taek’s ongoing medical treatment, Cheol-taek and Jeong-mi come to face more of the emotional conflicts beneath their relationship, and this consequently leads to a comic moment of social embarrassment among them and several others who happen to be around them. A subplot involved with Kyeong-mi’s ongoing struggle in her professional career feels rather redundant at first, but then it comes to function as another crucial part of the story later in the film.

I also like how another subplot in the movie shows more poignancy than expected. When her several siblings demand that she should take care of their nonagenarian widow mother, Hyeon-sook is not so willing to do that even though she does care a lot about her, but then there comes a little surprise from her aging mother, who has mused a lot on her family as well as her own life along the story as reflected by her phlegmatic narration.

The screenplay by director/writer/co-producer Jeong Seung-o, who is no stranger to dysfunctional family considering his previous film “Move the Grave” (2019), resolves the conflicts among its main characters a bit too conveniently, but the movie remains supported well by the solid ensemble acting from its main cast members. While Ki Joo-bong and Ha Yoon-kyung ably complement each other throughout the film, Yang Mal-bok, a wonderful veteran actress who has risen as one of the most dependable performers in South Korean during last several years since her astounding performance in “The Apartment with Two Women” (2021), has her own moments to shine, and several other main cast members in the film including Won Mi-won and Kim Jong-goo are equally effective in their respective supporting parts.

 On the whole, “Coming of Age” is a typical dysfunctional family dramedy, but it is fairly engaging thanks to Jeong’s competent storytelling and the commendable efforts from his main cast members. In the end, everyone in the film comes to learn that it is really the time for all of them to grow up, and the movie does earn a glimpse of hope and optimism as they respectively step forward a bit in one way or another. Regardless of how old or young you are, it is never late to grow up, isn’t it?