NEXT SOHEE
Genre
Drama
Running time
138 minutes
Year
2022
Language
Korean
Subtitle
English and Arabic
Country
South Korea
Director
July Jung
Bio
Producer
Kim Dong-Ha, Kim Ji-Yeon
Cast
Bae Doona, Kim Si-Eun
Scriptwriter
Sohee (Kim Si-eun) is studying pet care and is a talented dancer, full of life and determination, but when her college tells her she should be honoured to get an irrelevant placement in a call centre – which she must complete for her diploma – she is keen to do her best. Even at her initial interview, she realises her new employers have no interest in her; for the company scooping up cheap labour, the school and government funding bodies, these “externalship” programmes are all about their balance sheets. Halfway through July Jung’s slow-burning but genuinely angry film, there is a suicide, and the story is taken up by Detective Oh Yoo-jin (Doona Bae). She defies her superiors’ indifference and the obstructions thrown in her way by Sohee’s employers to discover where the responsibility lies. A stunning and unexpected film that looks into how systems thrive off of suffering and despair.
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