LEE Yun Chan / Taiwan / 2026 / 112min / Competition  

At the center of To Be Ordinary is a seemingly unremarkable family of four: a married couple and their son and daughter. They seem neither abnormal nor particularly troubled. But when the eldest son is injured in a traffic accident and starts using a wheelchair, long-hidden family problems begin to surface. The father is tormented by the thought that his own unemployment may have driven his son to commute home late at night. The mother has long stopped communicating with her disheartened husband, while the youngest daughter enters adolescence feeling neglected as her parents focus on her injured brother. Director Lee Yun Chan’s gaze does not become mired in these fractures. The guilty driver responsible for the accident pays a huge sum in compensation, bringing the family temporary peace. The eldest son even develops romantic feelings for a therapist he meets during rehabilitation. But the film soon returns to the realities that thwart the family’s recovery. What allows us to accept this mercilessness as an inescapable irony of life is the film’s measured cinematography and editing. The camera maintains a consistent distance from the characters, resisting the urge to magnify their suffering. Music is used sparingly, while the production design blends seamlessly into the surroundings. Only subtle, everyday images cautiously add layers of meaning: a bird that secretly builds a nest on the roof before suddenly flying away, or fallen leaves swept aside as a long-overdue conversation unfolds. Returning to Busan after The Shoe Fairy (2005), Lee Yun Chan has crafted a tragicomedy marked by this same sense of responsibility. By drawing out the individual within the family while exploring the fate of a family whose members struggle to live fully as individuals, the film tells a story that I hope will resonate with audiences across national borders.