# 20th Century Girl (20세기 소녀)
**20th Century Girl** (20세기 소녀) is a 2022 South Korean teen romance film written and directed by Bang Woo-ri in her feature debut, starring Kim You-jung, Byeon Woo-seok, Park Jung-woo, and [Roh Yoon-seo](https://www.edgepedia.org/roh-yoon-seo). Set in 1999, it follows a 17-year-old girl who spies on a boy on behalf of her best friend and then falls into a love story of her own. It was produced by Yong Film Inc. and released worldwide on Netflix on October 21, 2022.[1](https://about.netflix.com/en/news/netflix-confirms-production-for-20th-century-girl-with-the-casting-of-kim) • [2](https://media.netflix.com/en/only-on-netflix/81472752)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Title / native title | 20th Century Girl (20세기 소녀) |
| Director and writer | Bang Woo-ri, her feature-length debut[1](https://about.netflix.com/en/news/netflix-confirms-production-for-20th-century-girl-with-the-casting-of-kim) |
| Setting and premise | 1999; 17-year-old Na Bo-ra observes her best friend's crush while the friend is in the United States for heart surgery[2](https://media.netflix.com/en/only-on-netflix/81472752) |
| Main cast | Kim You-jung (Na Bo-ra), Byeon Woo-seok (Poong Woon-ho), Park Jung-woo (Baek Hyun-jin), Roh Yoon-seo (Yeon-doo); Han Hyo-joo plays the adult Bo-ra[1](https://about.netflix.com/en/news/netflix-confirms-production-for-20th-century-girl-with-the-casting-of-kim) • [3](https://www.soompi.com/article/1552185wpp/20th-century-girl-director-) |
| Production / distribution | Yong Film Inc.; Netflix, released worldwide on October 21, 2022[1](https://about.netflix.com/en/news/netflix-confirms-production-for-20th-century-girl-with-the-casting-of-kim) • [2](https://media.netflix.com/en/only-on-netflix/81472752) |
| Runtime | 119 minutes[4](https://cine21.com/news/view/?mag_id=101085) |
| Reception | 86% Tomatometer and 89% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes; No. 2 on Netflix's global Top 10 non-English film list three days after release[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/20th_century_girl) • [6](https://www.kookje.co.kr/news2011/asp/newsbody.asp?code=0500&key=20221102.22014000016) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
In 1999, the last year of the 20th century, 17-year-old Na Bo-ra (Kim You-jung) values friendship above love. Her best friend Kim Yeon-doo (Roh Yoon-seo) falls in love at first sight with classmate [Baek Hyun-jin](https://www.edgepedia.org/baek-hyun-jin) (Park Jung-woo), then leaves for the United States to receive heart surgery, asking Bo-ra to find out everything about him.[1](https://about.netflix.com/en/news/netflix-confirms-production-for-20th-century-girl-with-the-casting-of-kim) To learn about Hyun-jin, Bo-ra targets his best friend Poong Woon-ho ([Byeon Woo-seok](https://www.edgepedia.org/byeon-woo-seok)), a classmate in the school broadcasting club. Things do not go as planned, and Bo-ra is surprised to find her own heart beating faster.[2](https://media.netflix.com/en/only-on-netflix/81472752)
The frame story is set in the present: a videotape received in the winter of 2019 brings back memories of 1999 for the adult Bo-ra, who once played Cupid for her friend.[2](https://media.netflix.com/en/only-on-netflix/81472752) The film's ending is bittersweet, and director Bang Woo-ri said in interviews that she had weighed whether the story should end with first love being met again in the present or left as a memory.[3](https://www.soompi.com/article/1552185wpp/20th-century-girl-director-)
## Origins and production
Netflix confirmed production with the casting of the four leads on September 1, 2021.[1](https://about.netflix.com/en/news/netflix-confirms-production-for-20th-century-girl-with-the-casting-of-kim) The film is adapted from Bang Woo-ri's short film *Mrs. Young* (영희씨), about a middle-aged woman who meets a son who resembles her first love; *Mrs. Young* won the short film award at the Blue Dragon Film Awards, and *20th Century Girl* is Bang's feature debut.[7](https://about.netflix.com/ko/news/netflix-confirms-production-for-20th-century-girl-with-the-casting-of-kim)
The story began as something close to autobiography. Bang said the idea came from an exchange diary she had kept with a school friend, which recorded how she had observed the boy her friend had a crush on; she revived the material after a friend mentioned reuniting with her own first love.[3](https://www.soompi.com/article/1552185wpp/20th-century-girl-director-) She has also said she wanted to make a Korean teen romance, noting that the youth films she had enjoyed were mostly Japanese or Taiwanese and did not carry the same culture and emotions.[3](https://www.soompi.com/article/1552185wpp/20th-century-girl-director-)
**Casting.** Bang said Kim You-jung was her first choice for Bo-ra, and that Kim and [Han Hyo-joo](https://www.edgepedia.org/han-hyo-joo), who plays the adult Bo-ra, agreed to appear at the same time. She offered roles to Byeon Woo-seok after watching him in *Record of Youth* and to Park Jung-woo after *[Love Playlist](https://www.edgepedia.org/love-playlist)*; Roh Yoon-seo, a model turned actor, won the role of Yeon-doo through an audition.[3](https://www.soompi.com/article/1552185wpp/20th-century-girl-director-)
The production company was Yong Film Inc., the studio behind *The Call*, *Believer*, *Luck-Key*, and *The Handmaiden*; *20th Century Girl* marked its second collaboration with Netflix after *The Call*.[1](https://about.netflix.com/en/news/netflix-confirms-production-for-20th-century-girl-with-the-casting-of-kim)
## Release and reception
The film premiered at the Busan International Film Festival in October 2022 in the newly created "Korean Cinema Today: Special Premiere" section, before its worldwide Netflix release on October 21, 2022.[4](https://cine21.com/news/view/?mag_id=101085) • [2](https://media.netflix.com/en/only-on-netflix/81472752) Three days after release it ranked No. 2 on Netflix's global Top 10 film list in the non-English category and appeared in the top 10 in 33 countries including Japan, Taiwan, Brazil, and Mexico.[6](https://www.kookje.co.kr/news2011/asp/newsbody.asp?code=0500&key=20221102.22014000016)
On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an 86% Tomatometer from 7 critics and an 89% audience score.[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/20th_century_girl) Critics highlighted Kim You-jung's central performance; the [South China Morning Post](https://www.edgepedia.org/south-china-morning-post)'s review called her "an absolute delight" in a nostalgia-fueled high-school romcom, while Variety's Claire Lee wrote that the film adds to the familiar first-love theme by examining what makes certain moments and people unforgettable.[8](https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/k-pop/k-movies/article/3195206/busan-2022-20th-century-girl-movie-review-netflix-korean) • [5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/20th_century_girl)
## The 1999 setting
The late-1990s setting is treated as a period piece. Bang chose 1999 because she was that age herself and because the fin-de-siècle (end-of-century period, marked by transition) moment was a transitional era in which pagers and mobile phones, PC communication and the internet all coexisted, a mixture she saw as matching adolescence itself.[9](https://www.sisaweek.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=157312) The film details the period through props such as pagers, exchange diaries, and video tapes, and the director gave the young cast cassette tapes and a used copy of the magazine *Unplugged Boy* to convey the era's sensibility.[4](https://cine21.com/news/view/?mag_id=101085) • [10](https://enews.imbc.com/News/RetrieveNewsInfo/363880) The names of the two friends also carry the design: Bo-ra (purple) and Yeon-doo (light green) are complementary colors, chosen to mark the pair as complementary characters.[9](https://www.sisaweek.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=157312)
## References
1. [Netflix Confirms Production for 20th Century Girl With the Casting of Kim You-jung, Byeon Woo-seok, Park Jung-woo and Roh Yoon-seo, About Netflix (September 1, 2021)](https://about.netflix.com/en/news/netflix-confirms-production-for-20th-century-girl-with-the-casting-of-kim)
2. [20th Century Girl, Netflix Media Center](https://media.netflix.com/en/only-on-netflix/81472752)
3. ["20th Century Girl" Director Shares Inspiration Behind The Film, Her Take On The Bittersweet Ending, And More, Soompi (October 31, 2022)](https://www.soompi.com/article/1552185wpp/20th-century-girl-director-)
4. [BIFF #6호 [프리뷰] 방우리 감독, '20세기 소녀', Cine21 (October 11, 2022)](https://cine21.com/news/view/?mag_id=101085)
5. [20th Century Girl, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/20th_century_girl)
6. [넷플릭스 '20세기 소녀' 청춘의 대명사 김유정, 국제신문 (November 1, 2022)](https://www.kookje.co.kr/news2011/asp/newsbody.asp?code=0500&key=20221102.22014000016)
7. [넷플릭스, 《20세기 소녀》의 김유정, 변우석, 박정우, 노윤서 캐스팅으로 제작 확정, About Netflix (Korean)](https://about.netflix.com/ko/news/netflix-confirms-production-for-20th-century-girl-with-the-casting-of-kim)
8. [Busan 2022: 20th Century Girl movie review, South China Morning Post (October 8, 2022)](https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/k-pop/k-movies/article/3195206/busan-2022-20th-century-girl-movie-review-netflix-korean)
9. [[인터뷰] 방우리 감독이 밝힌 '20세기 소녀'의 모든 것, 시사위크](https://www.sisaweek.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=157312)
10. ['20세기 소녀' 방우리 감독 인터뷰, iMBC 연예](https://enews.imbc.com/News/RetrieveNewsInfo/363880)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Coming-of-age films › Coming-of-age films released 2010 onward*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 18, 2026; Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 18, 2026; Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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