There was a time in Korean cinema when teen movies starring legendary actors like Shin Sung-Il and Um Ang-Ran swept across the nation. The so-called “Yalgae” series formed a genre of films situated in and around school. However, presently the contemporary Korean market lacks a good “coming of age” drama. There are plenty of films with teenage characters but they often deal with a male student who becomes a gang member, and a female student who becomes held hostage. Considering that “teens growing up” is a popular material for films and other media in Japan, and not to mention Hollywood, it is strange why there is so little demand for them in the Korean market. Why have adolescents disappeared from our silver screen? Perhaps our youngsters are too exhausted to form a culture of their own, too wasted under the pressure of competitive education?
 This innocent love story that develops between two ordinary high school seniors, Soo-jin and Min-jae, is something that everyone can relate to, yet Flying Boys is a significant display of their growing pains. This film might have been a natural step forward for the director Byun Young-joo, having dealt with the issues of isolated people in her documentaries such as The Murmuring and Habitual Sadness and women’s identities in her first commercial feature Ardor. Flying Boys is dazzling proof of her sincerity. (Jay Sohn)