I want to walk holding your hand. Why do you always let go?
There’s something so devastatingly sad about Journey to the Shore. This is probably one of the most saddest short films i've ever watched and for something only 30 minutes, it felt like I was on an emotional roller coaster. It perfectly captures the way two people can love each other so deeply yet still feel terrified of the world around them. In only thirty minutes, it vividly mirrors a kind of loneliness that some queer people spend their whole lives carrying.
What broke me the most is how realistic it is. They aren’t doing or asking for anything huge. They just want to hold hands without fear of people judging them and bullying them for it, to exist in a world without constantly checking who might be watching and to experience love the same way everyone else gets to. But Journey to the Shore understands the cruel reality that for many queer people, even the smallest acts of affection can feel dangerous. That’s what makes it hurt so much—not because the love is tragic, but because the world keeps forcing tragedy onto it.
This short film feels painfully real in the way it portrays shame, silence, and the exhaustion of pretending to be ok. So many queer people grow up believing they have to hide their true selves in order to become accepted by society.
And yet, beneath all the sadness, there’s still a little bit of tenderness. The way they smile and look at each other in the beach and firework scenes feels so genuine that it almost hurts. I spent the whole time wishing the world had simply been kinder to them. That maybe if people were less cruel, less judgmental, less obsessed with what love should look like, they could’ve just been two teenagers in love instead of two teenagers trying to survive love.
Yes, I know there are theories and symbolisms that Min-ha was actually dead the whole time and it was Sang-beom that was only at the beach but I refuse to believe those, like let a man be hopeful for once.
But honestly, this is the kind of short film that will leave me thinking about it for days, thinking about all the queer people who never got the chance to grow up peacefully as themselves, and that's probably why it's so gut-wrenching—because this is the reality of the world we live in.
My heart goes out to all the people in the world who've gone through the same pain Min-ha and Sang-beom did. No one should ever have to feel like being themselves is something they need to hide.
