Make My Day

Summary

Make my day

Hee-Jin, a young Korean woman, lives with her mother in Berlin-Friedrichshain. She is pregnant by her depressive boyfriend Ralf, whom she no longer loves. At her brother’s martial arts studio she meets a Frenchman named Laurent who works in fashion.

She begins an affair with him, but he soon disappears to Paris. After a confrontation with Ralf, Hee-Jin loses the baby. Her mother, a strict Catholic, believes she has had an abortion and throws her out of the house.
In her loneliness Hin-Jee travels to Paris in search of Laurent. There she meets the old artist Serge, who lets her stay with him. She finally runs into Laurent by accident in a restaurant where he works as a waiter. He confesses to her that he has returned to his wealthy wife. When Hee-Jin can no longer stay with Serge, she travels through France, penniless, until one night the tent she has stolen from Serge burns down. Having failed in her aims, Hee-Jin returns to Berlin to settle down in the ruins of her life.
The point of departure for these fictitious scenes were stories told to Henrike Goetz by some of her friends. "From this mixed bag of life’s dramas, a picture of everyday life has emerged in which crisis and normality lie close together … Hin-Jee, an aimless wanderer among wanderers, makes her way through this cosmos in which the attempts of people to make something of their lives are unreasonable and doomed to failure."

Source: 55. Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin (Catalogue)