By Kim Heung-sook
Freelance Columnist

When people say they wish to start ``a brand new life," they suppose the new life will be better than the present one. For the nine-year-old heroine in the film, ``A Brand New Life," however, a new life is an unwanted imposition like a scar that never heals. The film's original title is ``Une Vie Toute Neuve." It is showing here as ``Yeohaengja," meaning ``Traveler."

Jin-hee lives with her father and his new wife, among others, and has few complaints, though her life is not anything like what her peers would envy. She loves her father and younger stepbrother. So, when her father proposes to travel, she happily obliges. On the eve of departure, he takes her to the market and buys her new outfit and shoes. While the two of them eat ``bulgogi" dinner at a restaurant, the happy girl sings a song to her father.

``You will never know how much I loved you

You will regret it only after years flow away

When you feel sad and miserable,

Call my name and I will be there for you

With the warm tears overflowing my eyes

I will wash away your heartache …"

For mature men and women, this is a sad song that speaks for a person in agony over an unrequited love. For the young Jin-hee, the song is just a song or a declaration of her love for her father. For critics, the song foretells how the story will unfold. A great hit in the late 1980s, the song is enjoying a renewed popularity among movie watchers.

The following day, Jin-hee's father takes her to a Catholic orphanage and leaves without even saying goodbye to her. She believes he will come back and refuses to become a member of the institutionalized family. For her, a new day means another day of frustration and unanswered waiting.

Though the film was directed by Korean-born French director Ounie Lecomte, whose earlier life as a Korean adoptee in France must have been very much similar to the young protagonist, it isn't dripping with sentimental tears. Lecomte is said to have been adopted at the age of nine as Jin-hee. She studied dress design and worked on many films as an actress or wardrobe personnel before enrolling in the French national film school, La Femis.

``A Brand New Life" has been highly acclaimed at various international film events, including the 62nd Cannes Film Festival in May, the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in September, and the 22nd Tokyo International Film Festival in October. It will be presented also at the 60th Berlin International Film Festival in February next year.

``Striking a perfect balance between the vague, distant memories of childhood and the accuracy of a rigorous script, Ounie Lecomte makes her directorial debut with ``A Brand New Life," a remarkable film that has the pace and the humility of a precocious masterpiece. Lecomte's warm approach to directing envelops this bare, ascetic story of an abandoned youth with a sincerity that is as genuine as it is devastatingly moving," the TIFF described the film.

The film may bring particular pain and shame to people of Korea as they are aware that their country has sent some 200,000 children abroad for adoption since the Korean War (1950-1953). There have been quite some reunions among overseas Korean adoptees and their biological parents televised in recent years.

The most common question from the grown up adoptees was ``Why?" they were given up. The most answer from the parents was "to offer better life, better opportunity." Had Lecomte lived here her entire life, could she have still become the person she is now? I can't even guess. What I can tell is that any child abandoned by its parent wouldn't be able to get away from the feeling of abandonment, despite the fact that life is often a record of struggle to overcome childhood wounds.

``A Brand New Life" is the best feature I have seen in years. I am proud to note the Korean heritage in Lecomte, but wonder if it is fair for a Korean to feel such a pride. When I was Jin-hee's age, teachers took their classes to movie houses for good films. I hope they will do that today. The film may not offer brand new lives to them, but will undoubtedly affect some lives for the better.

kimsook@hotmail.com