AFFD: A Girl Next Door

A Girl at My Door questions the real minds of people beyond their public figure. It also questions our hearts and asks how far we are willing to go to do the mandatory for the right in the world. The film takes us to a difficult level in the exploration of a police chief’s interactions with a severely abused girl and her corrections of what is wrong in her boundaries. I was horrified in a film that was a thousand miles away from the dumb horror genre. The actors seemed to permeate their story through the screen. Their acting would have surely won at least one Academy Award in the US. I truly believed the man playing Mr. Park, the child’s father, was the most sadistic father one had ever met. In reality I hope that off the camera he had a great relationship with the actress playing Dohee, the child. One of the first parts in this winding path is when the chief accidentally sprays Dohee with water from her car. She immediately stops while the child runs away and the audience is let known the specialness of the chief’s soul. Unlike when I get soaked during a storm while waiting for the bus, here is a character who responds to a stranger with immediate consideration. The chief has been transferred to this town along the water for an occurrence in Seoul that brought trouble. It is a little bit of semi-comedic relief when the chief brings her own case of water because she does not trust the tap water in the town. An older lady responds with a little offended talk. The child with her dirty hair and dirt on her clothes is like a familiar landmark leading to a destination of darkness. I knew from the first scenes of Dohee that she was in a harmful situation. The horridness I mentioned earlier immediately jumps aboard like a fish on a boat when you see the father, Mr. Park, holding the child’s head and punching her face. He screams “Come here you little b*@!#!”. The demons that can come into people surround Dohee as you realize even her Grandmother is on her son’s side. The chief enters the scene of the continued beating and puts the father into an arm trap while the Grandmother screams. This circumstance of an endangered child is very real and could be right in your school, work, or rec center. This expertly laid out screenplay does not let us pretend or not recognize the children who are living in a pool of evil. These human beings need people like the police chief to rescue them before they drown.
(Review by Wyatt Head)