The future is not so much a prize to be seized by the young as it is bleak, foreclosed and unrelenting in this drama from South Korean director July Jung. Sohee (Kim Si-Eun) is a free-spirited high schooler with a fiercely independent streak and a love of dance. At school, her teacher pulls her aside and shares the good news: he’s found her an internship at a call centre. But the signs that she will hate the job are there on day one: during training, managers advise staff – all young, all female, all considered expendable – what lipstick to wear.
The film was inspired by a news story about a student who killed themselves while on a work placement, and one can sense Jung (who also wrote the script) has an interest in identifying institutions that fail young people in the real world. There’s Sohee’s school, more interested in chasing employment targets than student welfare; the call centre, with its exploitative practices; and, most omnipotent of all, modern-day capitalism, with its habit of shrinking life down to a brutal competition for survival.
With few stylistic or dramatic flourishes and sparse, often expository dialogue, the film almost functions as a work of investigative journalism. Quietly but powerfully, Jung lays out the culprits one by one, guiding the viewer to connect the dots.
The effect can be relentless. With its overwhelming interest in showing how social and economic systems let down teenagers like Sohee, less attention is paid to the film’s characters, their relationships and the larger world; there are few variations in tone. It feels like an opportunity was missed to bring novel dimensions and depth to what is in other ways a familiar story about runaway capitalism. When police detective Yoo Jin – a compelling performance by Bae Doona – is brought into the story, well-established failures by the workplace and the school are discussed to repetitive effect.
Momentary lightness, however, and a broadening in scope, is offered by scenes of Sohee with her friends. Although they, like her, are stuck: the boys work in terrible factory jobs, while her live-streamer best friend discovers that internet fame isn’t quite the escape from endless labour. It’s a chilling portrait of a generation frustrated and betrayed, facing a future they don’t quite want to claim.
• Next Sohee is in UK cinemas from 14 June
