Plot

The film opens with a man being interviewed about his sister, who has recorded a video diary in which she makes a shocking confession to her friends and family. Purporting to be a true story, the bulk of the film is presented as a reconstruction of actual events.

Hyun-yoo announces to her younger brother Jae-min and his girlfriend Ji-eun that she has an important confession to make, and asks them to record it on video. After issuing an apology to her parents, she reveals that she has been hiding a painful secret and is not like normal people; she is in fact a vampire

Vampire

Vampires are mythological or folkloric beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence of living creatures, regardless of whether they are undead or a living person...

. Jae-min and Ji-eun initially think she is playing a prank, but to prove her sincerity Hyun-joo bites into her wrist and starts to suck her own blood. She goes on to disclose further details of her life as a vampire, and dispels many of the common myths associated with the legend. Having heard of others like her overseas, she has decided to join a community of vampires living in England.

Going out at night to attract less attention, Jae-min films his sister as she feeds on a young woman in a telephone box. He and Ji-eun later talk to the woman, who remains unharmed, and she tells them that the experience was not painful, likening the sensation to an electric shock

Electric shock

Electric Shock of a body with any source of electricity that causes a sufficient current through the skin, muscles or hair. Typically, the expression is used to denote an unwanted exposure to electricity, hence the effects are considered undesirable....

. The events prove to them that Hyun-joo is telling the truth.

Some time later, Ji-eun visits Hyun-joo who is now living in England. Curious to know how it feels being bitten by a vampire, she asks Hyun-joo to suck her blood. Choosing the inside of her thigh, Hyun-joo begins to feed on her friend.

Cast

• Gu Hye-ju ... Hyun-joo
• Shin Ha-kyun
  Shin Ha-kyun
  Shin Ha-kyun is a South Korean actor. He first trained as a stage actor at the Seoul Institute of the Arts, before transitioning to film and gaining national fame with his role as a North Korean soldier in Joint Security Area...
  
   ... Jae-min
• Jang I-ji ... Ji-eun
• No Eul ... Girl in telephone booth
• Kim Il-woon ... Interviewer
• Im Won-hee ... Tutor

Production

Kim Ji-woon wrote and directed Coming Out as part of a project to distribute three digital short films online. Commissioned by venture group Media 4M, the project also included shorts by Jang Jin

Jang Jin

Jang Jin was born on 28 November 1971 in Seoul, South Korea. He is a leading theatre director, playwright, movie director, screenwriter, and producer in South Korea.-Profile:...

 and Ryu Seung-wan

Ryu Seung-wan

Ryu Seung-wan is a South Korean film director.-Early life:Ryu Seung-wan was born in 1973 in Onyang, a small town in Chungcheong Province. With the choice of domestic films mostly limited to propaganda and hostess films due to extreme government censorship, young Ryu often opted for the more...

. Coming Out was shot with a Canon XL-1 camcorder during a time when digital filmmaking in South Korea was still in its infancy, and went on to inspire many other digital productions.

Release and critical response

Coming Out was first broadcast online on 7 August 2000. In 2001 it was shown at the Fantasia Festival

Fantasia Festival

Fantasia International Film Festival is a genre film festival that has been based mainly in Montreal since its founding in 1996...

, and a report for Ain't It Cool News

Ain't It Cool News

Ain't It Cool News is a website founded and run by Harry Knowles, dedicated to news, rumors and reviews of upcoming and currently playing films and television projects, with an emphasis on science fiction, fantasy, horror, comic-book and action genres...

described the film as a "sexy and funny little short" with "a series of truly hilarious and unnerving scenes", also noting the "unmistakable overtones to the imagery" with regard to the final scene where Hyun-joo draws blood from her friend's thigh. Other festival screenings include the Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival

Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival

The Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival , or PiFan, is an international film festival held annually in July in Bucheon, South Korea...

 in 2001, and the Thessaloniki International Film Festival

Thessaloniki International Film Festival

The Thessaloniki International Film Festival has become one of the Balkans' primary showcases for the work of new and emerging filmmakers...

 in 2005. Coming Out was also included as a special feature on the UK DVD release of The Quiet Family

The Quiet Family

The Quiet Family is a 1998 South Korean comedy horror film. It was director Kim Ji-woon's feature film debut. The story centers around a family who owns a hunting lodge in a remote area, whose customers always happen to end up dying...

, and a review at DVDActive praised it as "delicate, cerebral and contemporary cinema at its most profound."