Next Sohee
With her second feature, July Jung explores the exploitation of the workplace in South Korea.
Sohee (Kim Si-eun) is one of two characters who have central roles in this film from South Korea and both of them are women, the other being Oh Yoo-jin (Bae Doona). The film in which they appear is the second feature by July Jung, a writer/director also known as Jung Joo-ri, whose approach here is rather different from the one she took in her first feature, 2014’s A Girl at My Door. In that film her directorial skills were evident but, having started out with a believable narrative, she ended up in the realm of melodrama. Whether or not Jung sees Next Sohee as a corrective, it is very much a case of this film avoiding flourishes of any kind as it doggedly portrays in the most realistic terms the story of how Sohee is driven to suicide. But it could be that the style of Jung's new film stems directly from the fact that what inspired her to make it was hearing of the real-life suicide of a girl who, just like the film’s Sohee, was under pressure due to working under the conditions that are shown in this film.
Next Sohee has been running for more than half its length before Sohee becomes a suicide so it might be argued that critics should not reveal this key element in the plot. However, given the fact that it is widely acknowledged that the film drew on this actual occurrence, it seems appropriate to reveal that the girl whom we are following from the outset will indeed become a suicide. Furthermore, to know that in advance adds to the impact of what we are seeing and it also enables a critic to describe the unusual form that Next Sohee takes.
It is by no means unusual for a film to fall into two parts but this one does so in a very novel way. For more than an hour we are invited to see life from the viewpoint of Sohee herself, a high school student who, ahead of graduation and as part of the school curriculum, is required to gain practical experience on being offered the opportunity to take up an internship in a call centre. Her tutor regards this is an honour for her and for the school and we are introduced to the world of the centre as she experiences it. She arrives with two other girls and the instruction she receives from the team manager (Sim Hee-seop) soon makes clear what is expected. The system does not function to serve the callers who have subscribed to its services but to counter any criticisms they make and to dissuade those who want to quit by enticing them into fresh contracts with the agency. It also becomes clear that the work could not be more competitive, be that due to performance ranking of those who work there or the obvious determination to ensure that the centre is seen as more successful than its rivals. What is more, it emerges that interns are used as cheap labour and that promised incentives are frequently delayed or even cancelled.
Rather than coming across as a personal tale about one woman, what we see is a day-by-day illustration of a work system that functions without any human consideration. Nevertheless, it is because the viewer identifies with Sohee that the film holds us in its grip and this response is all the stronger if one knows what her eventual fate will be. When that stage is reached Oh Yoo-jin takes over as the central figure, a police woman who has the job of investigating Sohee's suicide. Since the film lasts for 137 minutes, this is a substantial part of it as Yoo-jin goes round talking to the dead girl’s friends and colleagues, to her parents and to those with authority in the school, the call centre and the company behind it (here the fictional S-Plus Korea Telecom). A more conventional movie would turn this into something close to a thriller in which the plot would spring surprises and fresh insights would be unearthed as it proceeded. But Jung has a different aim since what emerges is the extent to which all the institutions echo one another and do so through recognising that they are part of a hierarchy in which it would be inexpedient to offend those who have power over them. Indeed, when Yoo-jin seeks to uncover the scale of the pressures imposed on Sohee she finds herself being warned off by the chief of the crime department for which she is working (Song Yo-sep). We thus come to see a certain parallel between her situation and that of Sohee herself.
Some viewers may question an approach which allows this film to have such a long running time and to stress the daily slog experienced by these two women rather than opting for a narrative with strong dramatic tension. This choice is justified, however, and for two reasons. The first is that, even if some might choose to argue that the film exaggerates the inhumanity in South Korea’s institutions, Next Sohee emerges first and foremost as a wide-ranging criticism of how the powers that be function in that society. Secondly, even if the film’s tone has been achieved at a certain cost, any lowering of dramatic excitement is balanced by the audience involvement that stems from the performances of the two leads. Bae Doona, who also starred in Jung’s first feature, is wholly engaging as detective Oh and in what is I believe her first leading role Kim Si-eun as Sohee is ideally cast and immediately ensures that the viewer identifies with her and comes to understand her situation to the full. What has resulted may not offer the satisfaction of a masterpiece, but this is an admirably serious and worthwhile film.
Original title: Da-eum So-hee.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Kim Si-eun, Bae Doona, Choi Hee-jin, Kim Woo-kyum, Song Yo-sep, Kim Yong-joon, Sim Hee-seop, Park Young-woo, Jung Hoe-rin, Yoo Jung-ho, Park Hee-eun, Park Yoon-hee, Yoon Ga-i, Kang Hyun-oh.
Dir July Jung, Pro Kim Dong-ha and Kim Ji-yeon, Screenplay July Jung, Ph Kim Il-yeon, Pro Des Choi Im, Ed Lee Young-lim Lee and Ji-youn Han, Music Jang Young-gyu.
Twin Plus Partners/Crank-up Film-Day for Night & Visual Arts Ltd.
137 mins. South Korea. 2022. UK Rel: 14 June 2024. Cert. 18.
