When she is not doing graphic design for her Seoul day job, 32-year-old Kim Jung-seo (Na Ae-jin) writes a vampire-based webtoon – and blood is on her mind. For she is returning to her seaside hometown of Donghae City to secure money owed by her estranged father the caddish restaurateur Yeong-joo (Ahn Seok-hwan), so that she can place a downpayment on a new Seoul condo and start putting down roots of her own with fiancé Park Gyeong-hyun (Kang Bong-seong). 

Sullen, ever dissatisfied Jung-seo bonds with her sunny half-sister Kim Jung-hae (Kim Jin-yeong), who harbours similar if younger dreams of being an artist. Jung-seo also both embraces and despairs of the transactional, indeed vampiric nature of all her relationships, recognising something of her father’s mischievous hedonism in herself. 

Jang Man-min’s feature debut is a messy saga of blood, roots, family dysfunction and the transient nature of material things in our lives.

Anton Bitel