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The Poet and the Boy (시인의 사랑)

The Poet and the Boy (시인의 사랑) is a 2017 South Korean drama film, the first feature directed by Kim Yang-hee, about a 40-year-old poet on Jeju Island who encounters an unfamiliar emotion when a restless teenage boy enters his household.1 It was released in South Korea on September 14, 2017, distributed by CGV Arthouse.1

Key factDetail
Original title / director시인의 사랑 (The Poet and The Boy), directed and written by Kim Yang-hee, her first feature1
ReleaseSeptember 14, 2017, South Korea; drama; rated 15 and over1
Running time110 minutes per Cine21; 109 minutes in the Korean Film Council-based database1 • 2
Main castYang Ik-june (the poet Taek-gi), Jeon Hye-jin (his wife Kang-soon), Jung Ga-ram (the boy Se-yoon)1 • 3
DevelopmentSelected for the Jeonju Cinema Project 2017; won both the best feature pitch and the audience award at the Jeonju Project Market4 • 5
Box office12,547 admissions per Cine21; 12,685 admissions on 119 screens with a gross of $72,419 in KOFIC data1 • 2
Screenplay honorsBusan Film Critics Association Award and Women in Film Korea Festival Award for Best Screenplay, both 20172

Spoilers

Story and characters

The film centers on three people. Taek-gi (Yang Ik-june) is a poet born and raised on Jeju Island who has neither the talent that sells poetry nor the money to live on, and whose fertility is also in question; his wife Kang-soon (Jeon Hye-jin) nags the ineffectual husband while loving him more than anyone in the world, and she desperately wants a child.1 • 3 One day a precarious boy, Se-yoon (Jung Ga-ram), appears before the couple like a wave, and the poet is swept by an emotion he cannot name.1

The supporting cast includes Won Mi-won as the poet's elderly mother and Kim Jong-soo as the chairman of the poetry society (동인회장).1 A review in the Seoul National University engineering college magazine notes that the ending credits identify the characters not by name but by role, as "the poet," "the wife," and "the boy," matching the film's title, which names the poet rather than the man.6 In the plot, after the two part, about a year passes before Taek-gi and Se-yoon meet again by chance at Taek-gi's publication celebration.7

Origins and production

A debut rooted in Jeju. Kim Yang-hee both wrote and directed the film.1 In an interview with Magazine M, she said the story began with the Jeju poet Hyun Taek-hoon: she asked herself what would happen if a man like him were given an intense love by someone boyish, and what would happen to the life and poetry of a man who had never once loved desperately but wanted to grieve in order to write poems.8 She described the poet as a careless person addicted to "poetry supremacism."

The film's geography came from the director's own life. Kim said the main locations were spaces she had worked in or lived in during her sixth year after moving to Jeju, and that Namwon Port, the drama's principal setting, was where she had lived for three years.4 Filming began on December 20, 2016, and she later said the cold weather suited the film's mood, which is set against a gray winter.9

The project was developed through the Jeonju International Film Festival's feature production program, the Jeonju Cinema Project 2017, and attracted attention from the planning stage for its affecting scenario.4 At the Jeonju Project Market it won both the best feature pitch award and the audience-voted audience award.5

Release and festivals

The film premiered at the Jeonju International Film Festival before its commercial release on September 14, 2017.4 It screened in the Discovery section of the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival, and its later invitations included the Göteborg International Film Festival (2018, New Voices), the Seattle International Film Festival (2018), the London Korean Film Festival (2018, Special Focus: A Slice of Everyday Life), Cinequest (2018), and the Korea Independent Film Festival (2018, opening film).2 It also opened the first Korean Independent Film Festival in Germany in 2017, with Kim Yang-hee and lead actor Yang Ik-june traveling to Berlin for the occasion.10

Commercial performance. The release was small and limited: Korean Film Council figures record 119 screens and a gross of $72,419, and a Korean Film Council news item reported just over 12,000 spectators in limited release within a month of opening.2 • 11 Cine21 lists total admissions of 12,547.1

Reception

At Jeonju, the jury praised the film for depicting the process of a poet opening his eyes to a new love with witty craft, and Cine21 critic Jang Young-eup called it a beautiful and heavy-hearted story about the web of relations among art and reality, concept and substance, the individual and the world.4 Cine21's five critics gave it an average of 6.00, with individual scores from 4 to 8, and registered audiences averaged 6.33.1 The screenplay won Best Screenplay from both the Busan Film Critics Association and the Women in Film Korea Festival in 2017, and the Producers Guild of Korea gave the film its New Generation Award and New Producer Award that year.2 Jung Ga-ram was nominated for Best New Actor at the 55th Daejong Film Awards.4

The cast's trajectory. For Jung Ga-ram, then 24, this was his second film after Fourth Place (2016); he said he was drawn to the scenario because Se-yoon's longing to leave the island resembled his own youth dreaming of acting in Miryang, and he relied heavily on Yang Ik-june during shooting.3 • 5 Kim Yang-hee observed at a post-screening talk in November 2017 that all three lead actors had grown busy since the film, which she took as a source of happiness as a director.9

References

  1. 시인의 사랑 (The Poet and The Boy) 상세정보, 씨네21
  2. The Poet and The Boy (2017), Korean Film Council database
  3. ["절박했죠".. 정가람, 연기를 사랑한 소년의 이야기 [인터뷰], 국민일보 via Daum](https://v.daum.net/v/Lr74XpvmSZ)
  4. 시인의 사랑 (The Poet and The Boy) 상세정보, 씨네21 (host mirror)
  5. '시인의 사랑' 정가람 "양익준에게 의지 많이 했다", inews24
  6. 서울공대 113호 (저해상) 커뮤니티 매거진, Seoul National University College of Engineering
  7. 시인의 사랑 (2017, 김양희 감독), Brunch review
  8. '시인의 사랑' 김양희 감독이 말하는 진짜 삶의 시, 중앙일보
  9. [[인디즈] 다채롭고 풍요로운 언어로 아름답게 말하는, <시인의 사랑> 인디토크 기록, Indiespace](https://indiespace.kr/3685)
  10. 주독한국문화원 아카이브 자료 (대한독립영화제 2017)
  11. Tokyo Film Festival Welcomes THE POET AND THE BOY, Korean Film Council news

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026

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