[HanCinema's Film Review] "My Name is Loh Kiwan"

In its first three days of availability on Netflix, "My Name Is Loh Kiwan" racked up 6.9 million hours viewed, or 3.1 million overall views, on Netflix, according to the streaming platform's official figures. The weak numbers likely point to the project's limited appeal. Sure, Song Joong-ki is a big star. But as the titular Loh Kiwan, a North Korean defector attempting to survive in Belgium, there's not really much for him to do except mope around looking depressed.

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It's been awhile since I've seen a North Korean defector image film, and it's somewhat remarkable for this kind of project to get an international Netflix release. But one of the reasons for that is that the genre is inherently political. Everyone knows that North Korea is bad, so a movie about how North Korea is bad can't really be inciting or insightful. Amusingly enough, "My Name Is Loh Kiwan" doesn't even try to establish this- save for a single photograph, everything on-screen takes place in either China or Belgium.

While writer/director Kim Hee-jin-V obviously expects us to have sympathy for Loh Kiwan's plight, there's a certain irony to how even from his perspective, no actual explanation is offered as to why he thinks he's a political dissident rather than an economic migrant. After a certain point the political dissident explanation seems more likely mainly because Belgium is a genuinely unpleasant place. Loh Kiwan is forced to live as a hobo, beaten up by random strangers, and eventually even betrayed by one of the few people to show him kindness because of Belgium's hostile immigration laws.

One of the few bright spots is Marie, played by Choi Sung-eun, who starts off on bad terms with Loh Kiwan but eventually they come around to each other. Anyone expecting "My Name Is Loh Kiwan" to be much of a love story will be quite disappointed though- most of their proper romance is just limited to a montage scene at about the ninety minute mark. Far more time is spent building up Marie's connections in the criminal underworld, which inevitably end up bloodily begging the question once again of why anyone would ever want to live in Belgium.

"My Name Is Loh Kiwan" is the kind of movie that's trying to be insightful mostly by being sad. Loh Kiwan's situation certainly warrants sympathy, but beyond his being kind of pathetic, there just isn't very much to him as a character. Marie fares slightly better, since her resentments regarding the world of illicit gambling on marksmanship that's apparently quite popular in Belgium are at least directly addressed.

That whole plot point, incidentally, is every bit as silly as it sounds, no matter how seriously Kim Hee-jin-V tries to frame these scenes. The foreign actors are actually pretty good- their roles, much like the leads, are just too one dimensional for them to really do anything all that interesting. Much like the title character, "My Name Is Loh Kiwan" clearly wants to say something, it just can't ever really articulate what that something is.

Written by William Schwartz

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"My Name Is Loh Kiwan" is directed by Kim Hee-jin-V, and features Song Joong-ki, Choi Sung-eun, Jo Han-chul, Kim Sung-ryung, Lee Il-hwa, Lee Sang-hee. Release date in Korea: 2024/03/01.