Loner (film)
| Loner | |
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Theatrical poster
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| Directed by | Park Jae-sik |
| Produced by | Lee Ho-seong |
| Starring |
Go Eun-ah Jeong Yoo-seok Chae Min-seo |
| Cinematography | Lee Seung-min |
| Edited by | Lee Hye-yeon |
| Distributed by | Mirovision |
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Release date
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Running time
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117 minutes |
| Country | South Korea |
| Language | Korean |
| Box office | US$412,300 |
Loner (Hangul: 외톨이; RR: Wetoli; aka Orphaned or Hikikomori) is a 2008 South Korean film. The debut feature by director Park Jae-sik, Loner is a horror film about hikikomori, the phenomenon of reclusive individuals who have chosen to withdraw from social life.
Jeong Soo-na (Go Eun-ah) is a 17-year-old high school student who lives with her uncle, Se-jin (Jeong Yu-seok), and grandmother (Jeong Yeong-sook) in a big mansion. Her bullied best friend, Lee Han-jeong (Lee Da-in) is subjected to a cruel prank that humiliates her at a public place that she decides to commit suicide by jumping on the railway. She returns home, but becomes a hikikomori (a reclusive lifestyle) until her bully arrives to apologize, only to find Han-jeong's dead body littered with splattered blood and vermin. The news drives Soo-na over the edge, while Han-jeong's bully commits suicide by jumping from the rooftop because of her trauma.
Soo-na slowly becomes a hikikomori, as identified by her uncle's fiancée, Choi Yoon-mi (Chae Min-seo), a psychology student. This is compounded when Se-jin's old flame, Han Song-i (Lee Yeon-soo) meets with Se-jin, only to be followed and beaten by Soo-na's grandmother as the latter angrily refuses to allow her to meet with Soo-na. During a dinner, Soo-na, in a trance, recounts a story to Yoon-mi that implies that Se-jin is actually her father, with Song-i her mother, and that the two were involved in a teacher-student romance until Se-jin abandoned her, with Song-i afterward marrying a man who abuses her everyday. Yoon-mi is furious when Se-jin avoids her questions and states that she will not talk with him unless he brings the topic again.
Soo-na's condition becomes even worse, with vermin starting to appear on her body. When the housemaid enters Soo-na's room while she is out, she is knocked out and fitted inside a barrel with the corpse of the Jeong's pet dog. Soo-na's grandmother attempts to reach Soo-na's room by a ladder but Soo-na kicks it, breaking her grandmother's back. That night, her grandmother heads to Soo-na's room but is stopped by Soo-na and a figure behind her, the latter of whom makes Soo-na's grandmother falls off of the stairs to her death.
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