Welcome back for another review from this year’s San Diego Asian Film Festival! Leave your digital cameras at home because we’re only working with film when discussing… Summer’s Camera (2025).
Title: Summer’s Camera
Director: Divine Sung
Premiered: March 24, 2025 (United Kingdom – BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival)
Runtime: 1 hour 23 minutes
Summer (Kim Si-a) tells us in an opening voiceover that her father had a disposable camera when he was a young boy. That camera led to lifelong love of photography. As Summer was growing up, he gave her a disposable camera as well. When Summer entered middle school, her father gave her his Nikon camera.
Now that Summer is in high school, a year has passed since her father died in what people say was a car accident, though Summer has her doubts. Four photos still remain on the roll of film in his Nikon. Despite falling in love with photography like her father, Summer doesn’t think she can ever bring herself to take those last four photos.
Well, things change when Summer meets the star of the soccer team, Yeonwoo (Yu Ga-eun), by complete accident. During practice, the ball goes out of bounds and lands at Summer’s feet. Yeonwoo is the player who comes to receive the ball and Summer is immediately smitten. So much so that she removes her lens cap and uses up the last four shots in that roll of film.
At the request of Yeonwoo, Summer goes to get the film developed so that Yeonwoo can see the photos of herself. When Summer picks up the developed film she is curious to see what all was on the roll. Especially since the majority of the photos were ones her father took. While going through the photos, she is confused why there is one man who keeps appearing.
The man isn’t her father and he isn’t a family member either.
Who could he possibly be?
Divine Sung delivered a coming-of-age tale full of heart and charm in her feature directorial debut.
What starts out as a film about photography winds up touching on subjects such as coming into one’s sexuality, coping with loss, first loves, and uncovering family secrets.
While that might sound like the makings of a heavy drama, Divine Sung manages to beautifully blend it all together and deliver it in a lighthearted manner. A lot of that is thanks to the performance from Kim Si-a.
Kim Si-a brings an endearing and genuine innocence to Summer that wins you over almost immediately. It is almost as-if she’s just being a kid in the role and not acting or reciting lines. Whether it’s the adorable awkwardness of a first date or dealing with uncovering a family secret, everything about her performance feels authentically like a kid who is just figuring everything out at on the fly and dealing the best that they can.
Summer’s Camera (2025) was also beautifully shot by Lee Ji-min. The majority of the film is bright and sunny, lifting the overall mood of each scene despite the topics at-hand.
All in all, Summer’s Camera (2025) isn’t afraid to look at life for the beautiful mess that it can be.
I, for one, will be eagerly awaiting what Divine Song brings us next.