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The title “Kajillionaire” refers to an immensely wealthy person, but this film is about a family that struggles to pay their monthly rent of 500 US dollars. The two parents and their daughter have no regular income and barely make ends meet by cheating others or selling things they steal from mailboxes or free prizes they win at events. In a nutshell, this family runs the perfect scam and commits crimes daily under the motto “Do whatever for money’s sake.” They split their earnings and living expenses equally.

Instead of attending school like her peers, the daughter Old Dolio grows up learning how to forge signatures and steal without getting caught by surveillance cameras. Because of an unusual experience and encounter with a stranger, she realizes one day that her family and her relationship with her parents are far from normal. She is plunged into despair as she suddenly recognizes the sense of deprivation she felt throughout her abnormal upbringing. Agonizing over whether to maintain her life or escape from it, which way will she choose?

After initially coming across a brief summary of the movie, I merely thought of it as a comedy about a weird family. After watching it, however, I concluded that this is instead a coming-of-age movie that begins with comic elements and evolves mid-way into a serious crime movie. Perhaps because this is an American indie film far unlike more popular works, I felt a little uncomfortable and found it rather weird and eccentric while watching it. Yet in the end, I wondered if my response was something intended by the filmmaker. While the heroine realizes what is normal in an abnormal situation, the audience, as “normal” people, sees what is abnormal through her. Perhaps the sense of unfamiliarity and confusion is intended as a sort of reverse experience of the heroine’s feelings.

It was intriguing that I kept asking myself question after question after watching the movie. Childrearing environment and education critically influence a person’s growth and personality, but this failed to stop my questioning. What is a normal family? Can a new type of human union be a family even if it falls short of the traditional definition? Even if audiences may feel the film is both absurd and strange, they will cheer for the heroine in the end. I am far from confident that the movie appeals to everybody and thus I recommend it to movie lovers seeking a new cinematic experience. They could discover some unexpected fun in it.

Han Su-jinMovieKajillionaire