My Name Is Loh Kiwan’s survival story feels heavy, with devastating challenges and hopelessness

Netflix’s recent Korean film, My Name Is Loh Kiwan, marks Kim Hee-jin’s feature film debut. The survival drama film premiered on the streaming platform on March 1, and stars Song Joong-ki and Choi Sung-eun. Based on Cho Hae-jin’s novel, I Met Loh Kiwan, the film is about the life of a North Korean defector as he struggles to survive in a foreign land with adverse conditions.

My Name Is Loh Kiwan Story

The story revolves around the titular protagonist, Loh Kiwan, as he grapples to find his identity in the foreign land of Belgium after fleeing North Korea and China. His fresh start in Belgium comes with several crises, including the chilly extreme weather to financial problems, but what remains constant is his will to stick to hope. The film is about Loh Kiwan’s battle to get the status of a refugee.

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How Loh Kiwan’s personal crisis and the essence of time

The film interweaves personal dilemmas and struggles with the passage of time. The protagonist learns to accept his tragic fate with time. From the opening montage, where Kiwan wants to commit suicide after the death of his mother, to the last scene, where he embraces his hurdles and struggles, the movie portrays the essence of time.

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The scenes where Kiwan sleeps in public toilets, eats rotten food from trash cans, and his other brutal encounters will have you reflecting on the privileges that we enjoy. The movie also highlights the power of a mother’s love and the strong bond between a mother and her child. When Kiwan loses his mother, he plunges into depression, and the baggage of guilt almost forces him to take his life.

Viewers can’t help but feel the hardships of losing a loved one in the emotionally charged opening scene, where Kiwan is seen wiping blood off the roads in China.

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Kiwan’s love interest, Marie, faces struggles by using drugs to save herself from drowning in self-doubt and guilt. Despite her tough shell as a spoilt brat, Marie is a soft and troubled girl who is battling her own demons. The film also stirs your consciousness with the question of euthanasia and whether the right to die should be given to each person, like Marie's mother, who wishes to free her loved ones from the burden of a useless life.

What does kindness mean in today’s selfish world?

My Name is Loh Kiwan strives to shatter the prejudices of law and order. Ironically, the justice system, which is made to protect us, fails to restore trust and fairness under the pretext of laws or rules. The movie impressively showcases how the judiciary heavily weighs on witnesses and evidence rather than humanity and kindness.

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There is a scene in the first half of the film that painfully demonstrates how poverty can take a toll on someone. When Kiwan arrives in Belgium, he is being harassed by some local young boys, who call him a beggar, followed by some merciless beating.

My Name Is Loh Kiwan is a poignant tale of survival and identity crisis that imparts a new vision of life. Everyone has phases of trouble, but only those who face these challenges are able to taste the sweetness of life.