Eighteen-year-old Dora (Kim Doyeon), unable to attend school because of a severe psychogenic skin condition, has come with her parents to a summer house in Namhae. There, she spends time with Yeon-su (Song Saebyeok), a painter who studied under her father Sang-hun (Choi Wonyoung), Yeon-su’s Japanese wife Nami (Ando Sakura), and their twin children. Dora, an enigmatic figure who seems hollowed out from within, appears to feel every shift in circumstance and emotion through her skin, and to express it through her skin as well, as her severe rashes repeatedly flare up and subside. Dora’s condition feels like a cruel curse, something one might want to look away from - and yet, strangely, one’s eyes keep being drawn back to her. Dora, in turn, finds herself drawn to Nami, who has battled breast cancer. Director July Jung’s Dora traces the emergence and dynamics of strange desire through its striking central character, Dora, who harbors both pain and secrets. The estrangement between body and mind; the strange ecstasy and pleasure sparked by and discovered in pain; growth and regression; surging and sinking - all are thrown together within a single character and within the film itself, generating a peculiar energy. Newcomer Kim Doyeon more than holds her own, while the superb Ando Sakura matches her intensity, sending waves of passion surging through the film. (JEONG Jihye)