#MeToo and pin badges: how Tomboy beat the odds at South Korea's box office

Celine Sciamma's 2011 sophomore effort has become an unlikely hit thanks to South Korea's own feminist reckoning - and the clever use of merchandise

Tomboy, the second film by Portrait of a Lady on Fire director Celine Sciamma, premiered at the Berlin film festival almost a decade ago in 2011. Following a summer in the life of a 10-year-old who's recently moved to a new neighbourhood, the film won acclaim (and criticism, when it was included in the curriculum in French schools) around the world for its depiction of a child experimenting outside gender norms, and has built up a steady fanbase ever since.

But it was never released in South Korea - at least, not until Portrait of a Lady on Fire swept the country's box office earlier this year to the tune of nearly 150,000admissions, becoming the most successful French film in Korea for more than five years. After that success, Tomboy was released on 14 May, and at time of writing, has had over 30,000 admissions, and tens of thousands of Instagram posts using the hashtag (literally Tomboi in Korean).