KOREA FOUNDATION

Boyhood, 2014
Director: Richard Linklater
Stars: Ellar Coltrane, Patricia Arquette, Ethan Hawke, Lorelei Linklater

Life is a patchwork of small everyday moments. This is the impression I got upon watching the movie Boyhood, which portrays how six-year-old Mason (played by actor Ellar Coltrane) grows up into an eighteen-year-old adolescent. Mason lives in Texas with his mother, Olivia, and his sister, Samantha. Once a week he meets Mason Sr., who got divorced from his mother, to go camping or play baseball together. When Mason’s mother decides to pursue a college degree and his family moves to Houston, Mason parts with his friends and spends lonely days in the new, unfamiliar setting. Through the big and small episodes that make up Mason’s life, this movie matter-of-factly portrays how he grows up.

Directed by Richard Linklater, well known for Before Sunrise and its sequels, Boyhood was impressively produced over a period of 12 years starring the same actors. Mason’s growth is shown in 15-minute sequences, each of which shows one year in his life in real time. The movie is also fun to watch because it touches on various political, social, and cultural issues and events of the 12-year period such as the Harry Potter series, the Iraq War, the Star Wars series, Barack Obama’s presidency, the movie Twilight, and Facebook.

“You know how everyone’s always saying seize the moment? I don’t know, I’m kind of thinking it’s the other way around. You know, like the moment seizes us.”
These are the last words spoken at the end of Boyhood. Many people say that the year 2020 is a “lost year,” but this movie allows us to understand that both the year 2020 and the year 2021 will form the pages of the stories of our lives.

Written by Koh Cho-young, Senior Program Officer, KF Korean Studies Department

Next month’s “KF Culture Walk” will be written by Park Hae-won, Assistant Director, KF Resource Management Department.

[Previous Articles]

ㆍDecember 2020: Big Eyes, recommended by Woo Jiwon, Senior Program Officer in KF Arts and Culture Department

ㆍNovember 2020: The Revolt of the Masses, recommended by Kim Joon-seop, Assistant Director in KF Auditor’s Office

ㆍOctober 2020: Give and Take, recommended by Kim Soo-yeon, Assistant Director in KF Korean Studies Department

ㆍSeptember 2020: A Gentleman in Moscow, recommended by Jeong Eun-sil, Assistant Director in KF Invitation & Fellowship Department

ㆍAugust 2020: The Great Game, recommended by KF Chief Auditor Moon Sung-ki

ㆍJuly 2020: The Horse Thieves, Roads of Time, recommended by KF Executive Vice President Kim Seong-in

ㆍJune 2020: Loonshots, recommended by KF Executive Vice President Kang Young-pil

ㆍMay 2020: Rise of the Robots, recommended by KF President Lee Geun