The movie House of Hummingbird, which started a new sensation in Korea last year, has been released overseas, North America and Japan. And now, it’s receiving rave reviews from overseas critics as well.
House of Hummingbird, which won a total of 59 awards, has received favorable reviews since its release in North America. After its release in Japan on June 20, the movie got sold out day after day, continuing its syndrome.
House of Hummingbird, set in 1994 Seoul, tells the story of 14-year-old Eunhee’s common and most brilliant memory as she wanders the city searching for love.
On June 26, House of Hummingbird started its virtual release with the help of distribution company Wellgo USA and was released at the Lincoln Center in New York and the Music Box in Chicago using the Kino Marquee platform.
New York Times chief critic Manohla Dargis wrote, “It’s hard to put something like life onscreen, and harder still to make us care. In ‘Hummingbird,’ Kim discreetly balances the personal and the social, bringing us close to Eun-hee while also letting us see the other realities and truths that she is slowly starting to notice.”
David Ehrlich of IndieWire wrote, “Sensitive and lived-in and strong in ways that a more forceful version of this story could never have been, Bora’s debut sketches a portrait of a girl coming into her own strength, and learning to see the blank page of her life as an opportunity rather than a death sentence.”
The movie is also a big hit in Japan. Despite the theaters’ slump amid the spread of COVID-19, House of Hummingbird was released in 40 theaters, mainly art house theaters across Japan, and has been selling out since the first week of its release, setting a new box office record with an exceptional responses.
Meanwhile, House of Hummingbird was selected as IndieWire’s “The Best Movies of 2020 So Far” and Metacritic’s “Best Movies for 2020.”
