Next Sohee (2022) User Reviews

FantAsia Premiere with Best Director Winner

[christian94 · 8/10 · 5 August 2022]

Writer/Director July Jung was in attendance to present her film after over 20 hours flights to Montreal, Canada. She was humble and pleasantly surprised to receive the Best Director Cheval Noir Award in front of a packed Audience for the FantAsia Film Festival closing film.

NEXT SOHEE (Da-eum-so-hee) stars international star Doona Bae in probably her best performance as a determined detective and relative newcomer on the big screen Si-Eun Kim as a distraught dance-dreaming, hard-hitting high school student stuck in an inhumane system. Si-Eun Kim also shines in her difficult portrayal and we can imagine Jung's direction was crucial for both.

July Jung uses a true story to illustrate flaws in the system, in people, culture and mentality that are specific to South Korea, yet resonate with international audiences. She states that the purpose of the film is not necessarily to create reform, yet to start awareness and an awaking process of what I would call warped societal and personal values.

Is high performance more praiseworthy than peace or purpose? Where is the qualitative in the mostly quantitative economy and politics? Where do we have agency instead of acceptance, avoidance, anger and despair?

The movie is envisioned in two distinct parts with the second one being much better in my view, yet exploring aspects of the first one in new light. All 134 minutes are necessary in the end to tell the story of a person, of a generation, of a system and society in all its universality.

The final shot is primed with primal emotion, as well as intellectual realisation. Analysis concludes a very well constructed and executed narrative. This is a high achievement from South Korea cinema once again.

I feel privileged to have witnessed this hard yet crucial artistic creation in fine company.

FANTASIA FILM FESTIVAL 2022 SOUTH KOREA KOREAN W/ ENG SUB 134 MIN DIR.: JULY JUNG.

A brave exploration

[ultrarks · 8/10 · 22 April 2023]

Korean director once again used concise and powerful shots to criticize a certain kind of difficult-to-solve structural defect in society.

The first half of the film is a bit tedious, but the story progresses gradually and vividly reflects common workplace culture. The second half of the film turns sharply, and the film begins to question relevant departments sharply. The shots in this section are powerful and inspiring. Interestingly, when you look back at it, all kinds of trivial descriptions in the first half are indispensable and extremely vivid. The whole movie is seamless and neat. There are no superfluous scenes, and each character is designed appropriately and full of details.

Someone can use this as a topic to expose the universality of corporate trampling on labor laws, which is a brave and admirable behavior in East Asia where governments often fail to protect workers' rights. I am very pleased with this.

Rich get richer & Poor get poor...!!!

[PANDIAN120621 · 8/10 · 25 December 2023]

This film has done a great job in highlighting the injustices of a capitalistic society that reduces the worth of a human being down to a single number. The acting is amazing, though the cinematography is straight to the point, in an almost documentary like style which is quite befitting to the theme of this film. It is a bleak slow burn with no resolution...While it recieved a 7 minutes of standing ovation at the Cannes... The director aims to expose the weakness of this gruesome capitalist system that strips off every little hope in the youths... It all started from a forced internship program as a school curricular, exploitation on cheap labor yet doing demanding and unforgiving task. It's extremely sad to to watch it as we're all basically going through the same thing everyday, and no one will be able to make a difference as it is deemed as a reality for everyone to survive.

Injustices are covered up and victims have nowhere to go. Since this film is based on a real life incident we could only expect a piece of peace to the struggling soul...

Well written and great actors

[Perfecrsky · 10/10 · 8 April 2023]

This movie is about the exploitation of minors (high school students) and how the whole liberal system crushes individuals and how a toxic workplace can ruin many lives. This movie Is about the dark side of the Korean labour market, and touches on many important subjects.

Bae Doona's performance Is absolutely breathtaking, as always. She's one of the best actresses of this generation.

Being close to burn-out myself, I couldn't hold back my tears during this move. It brought back many memories and made me rethink my life. Not many movies can have that effect ... It's a masterpiece. You should watch it m.

Solid of Story about Korea's Work Culture

[miguelcastrogusa · 8/10 · 31 October 2023]

The actors were great. Through the entire first half of the movie I felt uncomfortable in a good way. We are presented with situations where any of us can relate as some basic level, and top of great acting, we are not sure what the right answer is to the situation at first signs. The 2nd half of the movie feels a little out of place at the beginning, but after a little bit, it starts to pick up, and everything starts to come together very nicely which implies current issues in South Korea work culture. There is not much soundtrack in the movie which I did not mind. I will be expecting more from this director.

I can't keep calm, I'm Korean

[inikim · 9/10 · 27 December 2023]

South Korea is one of the only country that managed to make the switch from military dictatorship to democracy within a few decades. Scientists claim this transition happened so fast because of civil disobedience and massive protests in reaction to an unjust government.

Next Soohee is a film about injustice and the protagonists react intensely emotional to it, thereby keeping the Korean tradition alive. The parody on the classic 'Keep calm and carry on' in the title of this review, should be seen as a tribute to South Korean resilience.

After Broker, Doona Bae is brilliant again as a police detective. This role fits so well to her personal appearance. I would love to watch multiple seasons of a crime series with her in the leading role.

A movie that changes the world

[TaylorYee94 · 8/10 · 23 January 2024]

'Next Sohee' is based on a real life event in which a high schooler decides to end her life after five months of so called field work. It exposes and criticizes specific social problems, but the tone of the narrative remains rational and mild. Even so, this movie is exceptionally emotional because the portrayal of reality is so accurate that it can pierce into the heart and because the tone and the direction are lonely, melancholy and hopeless. For example, when Sohee looks up from the underground stairs, she sees snow outside in a very small frame of the door. When she drinks beer alone, the sun shines only on her toes at a very narrow angle. The space is always restricted and confined, resembling the fact that Sohee is suffocated without any exit. In contrast, the lake she walks into is wide enough to fill up the whole screen. The most open, spacious, and free scene in the whole movie.

After the movie was released, the law that guarantees the underaged workers all the rights and protection that adult employees receive passed. There will be more strict criteria for the workplace that high school students can attend. It is now on our watch that there will be no more next Sohee.

Personal but not accessible

[blakestachel · 3/10 · 25 October 2022]

Jung's attempt to expose South Korea's externship program for the self-serving and labor-exploiting enterprise that it is, is a noble one; and while I'm sure she invested a great amount of emotion and effort into the research and making of this film, for the greater part of its two-hour-plus runtime, Next Sohee fails to create a compelling appeal.

The first half is bogged down by its setting, which depicts the sole-sucking listlessness of a call center with incredible authenticity. A mid point climax then severs the film in halves, forcing itself to retrace the arduous steps taken in the first hour, as a detective goes to all the places we've already been and asks all the questions we already know the answers to.