Having acquired kudos on the festival circuit, Jeong Jae-eun's feature debut offers a refreshingly non-designer variation on all those Bridget Jones clones that now dominate the gal pal market.
Using the rundown port of Inchon to explore the contrasting personalities of five friends whose high school loyalties slowly shift in the swell of ambition and disillusion, Jeong observes the way the rebellious Bae Du-na becomes reticent artist Ok Ji-yeong's emotional crutch, once trendy Lee Yo-weon begins hanging out with her office mates in Seoul. This format tends to marginalise half-Chinese twins, Lee Eun-sil and Lee Eun-ju, whose eccentric enthusiasms brighten the occasional drift into sombre introspection. It also enables Jeong to focus on more personal issues than the shallow romantic/partying preoccupations of most twentysomething pictures.