Common Sense Media Review
By Andrea Beach
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Gentle Korean friendship story doesn't offer any answers.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 10+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Watch
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The World of Us
Parent and Kid Reviews
What's the Story?
In THE WORLD OF US, fourth-grader Sun (Soo-in Choi) doesn't have any friends at school. No one seems to like her, and a trio of girls often say downright mean things to her. Over a school holiday, Sun meets Jia (Hye-in Seol), a transfer student who will be in Sun's class when school resumes. Sun and Jia quickly become friends, and even get to spend a week together while Jia's parents are away. But things change when classes resume, and as Jia falls in with the mean girls, she starts to pull away from Sun. Will they ever be friends again?
Is It Any Good?
This quiet, thoughtful debut from Korean writer-director Ga-eun Yoon is a bittersweet, mature look at friendship that doesn't provide answers but invites viewers to think a lot about friendship. The World of Us is very complicated and hard to understand. What is friendship? How do you make friends? What makes a good friend? Yoon very gently asks us to examine these complicated questions through simple but elegant storytelling and the remarkable performances she gets from her young actors.
But as much of the story is told by what's not said, or what's not seen, as it is by what the characters do say. A lot of information is conveyed in quiet, in-between moments, and by reaction shots and looks exchanged between characters. Even though there's very little content of concern for big kids and up, the high degree of subtlety, advanced and quick reading skills needed for the subtitles, and open ending with no conclusion make it best for tweens and up.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about how The World of Us shows friendship. Would you like to be friends with Sun or Jia? Why or why not?
Have any of your friendships changed? What was different? Why do you think it changed?
Have other kids ever treated you the way Sun's classmates treat her? Have you ever treated anyone that way? How does watching Sun's story make you think about how to treat other people?
Movie Details
- In theaters : May 13, 2016
- On DVD or streaming : February 18, 2017
- Cast : Soo-In Choi , Lee Seo-Yeon
- Director : Ga-eun Yoon
- Studio : Finecut
- Genre : Drama
- Topics : Family Stories ( Siblings ) , Friendship
- Run time : 95 minutes
- MPAA rating :
- Last updated : September 30, 2025
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