In this powerful, emotionally layered drama, a spirited teenager confronts buried pain, while director Yoon Ga-eun explores the quiet resilience it takes to own one’s story — and future.
What does it mean to reclaim your life in the wake of deep trauma?
In The World of Love, director Yoon Ga-eun — known for her sensitive portrayals of childhood — turns her lens to adolescence, navigating a more complex emotional and social terrain. This multidimensional story reveals how courage and resilience can shift the narrative — from being shaped by pain to shaping a life with purpose.
The film centres on Jooin (Seo Su-bin), a teenager whose vibrant, seemingly carefree demeanour conceals a darker undercurrent. Unlike conventional portrayals of young women grappling with a life-altering experience, Jooin is energetic, outspoken, and unafraid to joke about life — including sex — offering a rare depiction of trauma and recovery.
The Korean title, The Owner of the World, is a poignant play on words: “Jooin” sounds like “owner” in Korean, suggesting both personal agency and the reclaiming of her story. Those around her — family, classmates, even a child at the daycare — reflect the different ways emotional pain can be carried.
Yoon’s restrained, observational style — a hallmark of her filmmaking — renders the film’s revelations all the more powerful. What begins as an ordinary slice of life becomes a quietly devastating portrait of resilience and familial complexity.
Anchored by Chang Hyae-jin (who appeared in Yoon’s The World of Us) as Jooin’s mother, The World of Love is not an easy film, but a vital and finely crafted one — humble in tone, yet profound in its insight.
GIOVANNA FULVI
Screenings
TIFF Lightbox 2
Scotiabank 9
Scotiabank 1
Scotiabank 11
Scotiabank 7