Fragment

If you want to see how easily people can forsake their rationality, point them to a place where a murder has been committed. Many people will feel frightened by it. Houses have to be torn down because nobody will live there and neighbours feel contaminated by their presence. Vehicles in which killers have travelled, sometimes even after their deaths, are destroyed. There seems to be a deep seated belief, in lots of parts of the world, that the evil associated with murder is somehow lingering and contagious. Now imagine what people who treat property like that will do to a murderer’s kin.

A powerful début from Kim Sung-yoon, which screened as part of Fantasia 2025, Fragment centres on two teenage boys. one of them, Gi-su (Moon Sung-hyun) is living alone in the house where his parents were killed, not wanting to let go, despite his aunt and uncle’s attempts to reach out to him. The other, Jun-gang (Oh Ja-hun) is the son of the man who killed them, living with his younger sister Jun-hui (Kim Gyuna) in the basement apartment that their father rented. Their mother having left years previously, the rent and bills are massively overdue, and he struggles to scrape together money for food, focused on keeping life as normal as possible for his sister, who still doesn’t know what has happened.

We never learn the motive for the crime. It doesn’t seem very important. Boys from Jun-gang’s school sensationalise it, excited about visiting the murder site and discussing how violent it must have been. Jun-gang keeps his father’s involvement secret from them for as long as he can. Meanwhile, Gi-su is caught between feelings of hopelessness and overwhelming rage, unable to begin to process his emotions in a normal way. With the two living just a few blocks apart, a violent encounter seems inevitable.

Whilst Gi-su is overwhelmed by offers of support when he really just needs some space, the state seems to have completely failed Jun-gang and Jun-hui. A kindly teacher, Mr Park, tries to help, but is warned by the headmaster that one can get overwhelmed by such cases without actually managing to change anything. A local shopkeeper also shows kindness, but it’s a drop in the ocean. meanwhile, both boys wrestle with feelings of guilt that really shouldn’t be theirs, and experience a stark emotional disconnection from the world around them, especially those who see the whole thing as a bit of excitement. In a tragic scene about two thirds of the way through, it becomes clear that Jun-gang, too, has been at pains to manage her emotions, even in her ignorance, to try to protect her brother.

Part thriller, part character study, the film is perhaps most notably a condemnation of societal failures and a warning about how easy it is for people to fall through the cracks, even in childhood, when they’re unable to live their lives according to standard expectations. Both are placed at risk of becoming violent criminals themselves, despite being sensitive individuals who might have prospered were it not for their ill fortune. Notions of family and community honour contribute a dimension which Western audiences may be less familiar with, but it’s easy enough to follow what’s going on.

Kim directs with confidence and skill, managing the tension well and able to shift easily between downbeat drama and fast-paced action. All three main actors are seriously impressive. The story has a tendency to stop and start, moving awkwardly between chapters, as it were, but this is the only significant flaw in an otherwise commendable piece of work. It’s a tough watch but a valuable take on an underexplored subject.

Reviewed on: 21 Jul 2025