FAQ is screening as part of the 2024 Fantasia International Film Festival, which runs from July 18 to August 4.

FAQ is an interesting little creature. It has an infectious personality, driven by the child actor at its center. For a small-scale story about childhood and parenting, it is doing quite a lot (perhaps too much). Even as it is unclear exactly where it is going, what its odd plot points are progressing toward, the film gets by on heart and charm and liveliness.

At its core, FAQ is a film about a daughter and a mother. Dong-chun (Park Na-eun) is a quiet, curious, and restless child who, despite an excelling mind, struggles to make sense of her studies. Her mother (Park Hyo-ju) is worried about her future college prospects and the tiny details that may play into it. As such, she enrolls young Dong-chun in multiple after-school classes (called “hagwon”), and even goes so far as putting the child through “height therapy” to prevent Dong-chun from growing up too short.

Beyond this relationship, the film is populated by bits of magical realism and other oddities. Dong-chun is occasionally aided in her decision-making by large plushy creatures that could come from a children’s day-time program – think Barney the dinosaur or Teletubbies. Even as she often ignores their advice, the two boxy monsters are her support system.

Dong-chun also discovers a bottle of rice wine, which her furry companions urge her not to drink. Despite this, she keeps the bottle and watches as it ferments over time. The bottle, using Morse code from its bubbling fermentation process, also provides Dong-chun with the fourth place numbers of the lottery (the film’s Korean title is The Makgeolli Will Tell You, makgeolli being the rice wine drink in question). Later, Dong-chun will fill a water cooler jug with rice and ferment more wine, as she is curious by the concept of microorganisms being birthed within.

These quirky little plot points can get a bit internally confused, and they can distract from the central emotional heartbeat of the film. Fortunately, though, quirky is not used here merely as a substitute for genuine charm. The performances are fairly good across the board, bringing in equal measure humor and compassion. The young lead is particularly standout, especially given how much she is asked to do. Given how difficult it is to find good, natural performances from child actors, it is notable how good much of this young cast is when it comes to delivering some of the more comic moments of the film.

FAQ has an off-kilter energy that may require some patience. There is a lot of window dressing, and things develop slowly, but ultimately the film tells a very simple story. This story rewards patience with brief moments of rich emotional texture – a monologue from Park Hyo-ju midway through the second act about how Dong-chun’s childhood is a race the mother and daughter run together is standout – but it is unlikely to be a film that will rock you to the core, especially considering where the story turns in the final act. The film’s final moments, to me, appear to undercut the message that came before, the exact message stated by the mother in that monologue.

On the other hand, this is only true if one chooses to interpret the ending literally, and it could easily be argued that it is not Kim’s intent to literalize the fantastical elements of the film in that way. The director has said that the ending can be appropriately interpreted as either “sad” or “fun,” so perhaps there is a meaningful sadness to the way Dong-chun drifts away, physically and emotionally, from her mother. The fun, then, is found in the curious pursuit of understanding, which is the thing Dong-chun seeks from her family and teachers but cannot seem to get help finding. In either case, I left the film slightly deflated by this ending.

FAQ: B-

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As always, thanks for reading!

—Alex Brannan (Letterboxd, Facebook)