The tension built throughout Mimang is undeniable, the character development is extremely realistic, and the filmmaking is gorgeous. The film harkens back to Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise trilogy and even 2023’s Past Lives. And the only knock against writer-director Taeyang Kim’s subtle relationship drama is that it does not live up to those movies. It’s not fair to judge the film on that basis; on the other hand, if the only flaw is not being one of the best movies in your genre, and you are a first-time filmmaker, then Kim is already off to a great start.

When two old friends (Seong-guk Ha and Lee Myung-ha) run into each other around their old stomping grounds they take a long walk, conversing back and forth about where they are in their lives. They are both cinephiles, but she gets a job in the film industry, and he begins to study drawing for social engineering. There is a tangible chemistry between them but nothing comes of it. After their stroll, he meets his partner and she meets another man. Years later they reunite again at a mutual friend's funeral. Their lives have taken new turns yet again, only this time they are ready to offer up their raw unadulterated opinions.

Kim worked in lighting before getting behind the camera and his choice to direct a film like Mimang feels born of his trade. The movie is truly a walk-and-talk — every scene is two-three people speaking and nine times out of ten they are strolling or in a car. What is interesting about that choice is that it lends itself to a lot of natural light. Whether the movie was shot on film or not is irrelevant because the lighting is so naturalistic it gives every scene a film-like quality and the grain you see onscreen is lit to perfection. As characters meander around Seoul talking about love and life the images feel like something you can reach out and touch. In that way, Mimang is in a class of its own.

Though comparisons to films in its genre might be crass, it does help to identify what is missing in Mimang. The conversations that take place are deep enough to push the stories and the characters forward but not deep enough to make you think about bigger questions and themes. Most conversations are very literal and do not leave much room for interpretation. By the time you get to the end of the film, there is certainly an emotional payoff but perhaps not an intellectual one. There is a recurring conversation about the famed Admiral Yi that tries to break this curse but ultimately fails to do so.

Mimang plays out like a theater production. There are less than ten speaking roles in the entire film, and it plays out in three distinct acts. The result is a quiet yet effective insight into the lives of two people who don’t know how to act around their crush. At its Toronto International Film Festival premiere, Kim stated that in English Mimang roughly translates to widow, but the word has many meanings. The title cards throughout the film bring insight to that effect, but moreover make it clear that the word means a lot of things to a lot of different people.

Mimang is exactly the film it sets out to be: Gentle, indirect but never apologetic. Though there are films like it, it does not live and die on the history of those films. Kim’s future as a director is sure to be a long one and his debut is proof of that. Ha and Myung-ha have taught chemistry that can be felt in positive and negative scenarios, all the while feeling like a conversation we have all had before.

Mimang screened at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival. The film is 92 minutes long and is unrated.