International Festival Premiere | In Competition
South Korea, 2025, 115’, Korean
Directed by: Kim Do-young
Screenplay: Yeom Moon-kyung, Hana Kim
Cinematography (color): Shin Tae-ho
Editing: Lee Kang-hee
Production Design: Eun Hee-sang
Music: Jay Kim
Producers: Justin Choi, Lee Young-han, Lee Jung-suk
Cast: Koo Kyo-hwan (Eun-ho), Mun Ka-young (Jeong-won), Shin Jeong-geun (Eun-ho’s father), Lee Sang-yeop (Kang Min-jae)
Date of First Release in Territory: December 31st, 2025
Once We Were Us opens with a typhoon passing over Vietnam in the summer of 2024. With flights cancelled, many travellers who were planning to fly on that day find themselves spending an extra night in Ho Chi Minh City. Among them are two Koreans who run into each other by chance. But they are hardly strangers – in fact, a little over a decade earlier, they were as close as two people could be.
We then flash back to the very first meeting between our protagonists, in the year 2008. This time too they are traveling, but on a bus rather than a plane. Eun-ho, a 25-year old university student studying computer engineering, is going home to visit his father, who runs a small restaurant in Goheung, in southwest Korea. Jeong-won, 22 years old, has no family to return to, but she too wants to revisit the center where she spent part of her childhood. Both of them could be called loners by nature, but some coincidence and a fortuitous accident bring them together, and before long, they are the best of friends.
Once We Were Us is a remake of the widely praised 2018 Chinese feature
Us and Them, directed by Rene Liu. Although many of the details and events of the plot have been changed, like the original, this is a film about an unusually close relationship that develops and evolves over the course of several years. Jeong-won and Eun-ho are a good match for each other in terms of temperament and intellect, but they also respect and support each other’s ambitions. Eun-ho dreams of developing his own computer game one day and becoming rich. Jeong-won, for whom the concept of home is particularly important, dreams of studying architecture.
Director Kim Do-young, an actor by training, had a big success with her debut feature
Kim Ji-young, Born 1982, and this film too emerged as a significant word-of-mouth hit when it was released at the end of 2025. It’s not hard to see what viewers found appealing: she captures all the warmth and energy of Jeong-won and Eun-ho’s relationship while also presenting it in a way that feels realistic. The scenes set in 2024, which are shot in black-and-white, form an effective contrast to the passion and turmoil of the protagonists’ youth. The end result is that the film feels honest – not merely something to entertain its audience for a couple hours, but a good-faith attempt to grapple with the complexities of human relationships.
Of course, for this type of film, casting is crucial, and thankfully Koo Kyo-hwan and Mun Ka-young bring nuance and great screen chemistry to their roles. Koo is an actor with great range and a distinctive look – there’s a reason why he is much in demand these days. Mun started as a child actor and now has two decades of acting experience, which one can feel in her assured, nuanced performance. But it’s the combination of the energy each actor brings that is particularly effective. Eun-ho and Jeong-won are an onscreen couple that Korean audiences will remember for a long time.
Kim Do-young
Kim Do-young began acting in 2002, with her first leading roles in independent films Written (Karlovy Vary 2008) and The Day After (Berlinale Forum 2009). While continuing to act, she directed the 30-minute short The Monologue (2018), which won awards at the Mise-en-scene Short Film Festival and the Seoul International Women’s Film Festival. Her feature debut Kim Ji-young, Born 1982, based on a bestselling novel, sold over 3.6 million tickets and screened at FEFF22. After the word-of-mouth success of Once We Were Us, her next project is a Korean remake of the 2015 Hollywood film The Intern.
FILMOGRAPHY
2019 – Kim Ji-young, Born 1982
2025 – Once We Were Us