The second feature from Seoul-born Canadian filmmaker Anthony Shim (Daughter), RICEBOY SLEEPS is an achingly intimate portrait of a mother’s love for her son. 

With delicacy and tenderness that never tips into sentimentality, Shim charts the difficulties faced by So-young (Choi Seung-yoon) and Dong-hyun (Dohyun Noel Hwang) as they attempt to fit into 90s Canadian suburbia. As Dong-hyun grows older, he becomes increasingly curious about his Korean heritage and about his deceased father – a topic that So-young refuses to address. Years later, we meet a teenage Dong-hyung (Ethan Hwang), now known as David, who’s grown distant from his mother until a critical event takes them on an unpredictable journey into their past.

This shot-on-16mm treasure, drawing laudatory comparisons with Minari, is superbly performed by dancer-turned-actor Choi Seung-yoon in her first feature role and 2022 TIFF Rising Star award winner Ethan Hwang.

Some Korean language, English subtitles