Queen Of The Morning Calm

Starring Tina Jung and Eponine Lee. Streaming at VIFF Connect from October 30 to November 28.

A Toronto exotic dancer (Tina Jung) trapped in a bad relationship tries to find a safe haven for herself and her troubled daughter Mona (Eponine Lee) in Gloria Ui Young Kim’s first feature. 

Jung’s Debra is a bright woman with marketable skills who’s had a few lousy breaks. Her boyfriend Sarge (Violation’s Jesse LaVercombe) is a gambler and a drunk, leaving her scrambling for money and unable to give young Mona the attention she needs—which means the kid acts out at every opportunity, endangering Debra’s ability to hold down a job.

Jung shows us the exhaustion and constant panic with which Debra constantly lives, while LaVercombe brings a queasy blankness to the entitled Sarge that instantly registers him as a threat. (Shaun Benson provides a stable counterweight as a pawn shop owner who hires Debra as his accountant.)

The character of Mona feels underdeveloped, mostly because Kim’s script uses her as a plot complication to the point where her unpredictability becomes predictable, but the young Lee does what’s asked of her. 

The film hits a lot of familiar notes, but it offers a couple of very strong performances and a good feel for the moment-to-moment tension of an economically uncertain life.