1999, a year before the new century begins: that's the setting for 20th Century Girl, a South Korean coming-of-age romance from director Bang Woo-ri, released in 2022.
What is 20th Century Girl about?
Before she leaves for heart surgery in the United States, Yeon-du asks her best friend Bora for one favor: keep tabs on Baek Hyun-jin, the boy she's fallen for, while she's away. Bora agrees, and to get useful information she decides the smartest move is to get close to Baek's best friend, Pung Woon-ho, first. It's a plan built on good intentions and not much strategy, and it goes sideways almost immediately, pulling Bora into feelings and complications she never signed up for. Turning seventeen in the last year of the century, Bora finds herself falling into the particular fever of a first love that was never supposed to be hers to have. The film treats that confusion with real tenderness rather than played for easy laughs, following a friendship-turned-favor that keeps drifting further from its original assignment. Set against a nostalgic late-90s backdrop, it's a story about the gap between what you agree to do for a friend and what your own heart quietly starts wanting instead.
About the cast
Kim You-jung leads as Bora, with Byeon Woo-seok, Park Jung-woo, Roh Yoon-seo, Kim Sung-kyung, Jeong Seok-yong, Yoon Yi-reh, and Jeon Hye-won rounding out the ensemble around her.
Context & significance
20th Century Girl runs 119 minutes and comes from South Korea, a market whose coming-of-age romances have built a wide following well beyond their home audience for exactly this kind of specific, character-first storytelling. The 1999 setting isn't just a backdrop; the approaching millennium gives the film a built-in sense of an ending, which sharpens the urgency behind Bora's tangled favor-turned-crush.
Watching 20th Century Girl on Ktime
K-Time offers 20th Century Girl with both Persian dubbing and Persian subtitles, so viewers can choose whichever fits how they like to watch. Access is free with a K-Time account login, and the Farsi-language interface makes browsing the rest of the catalogue just as easy before or after this one.