Director Jung Joo-ri sheds light on labor exploitation in 'Next Sohee'

• Published date: 23 February 2023
• Publication title: The Korea Times

Jung Joo-ri, director of Korean film "Next Sohee," said Monday she was struck by a tragic incident of a high school girl's death amid her assignment to a call center and wanted to focus on what pushed her into a dead end.

The film follows Kim So-hee (Kim Si-eun), a vocational high school student who works at an internet service provider's call center as part of a job training program and grapples with the harsh work environment.

The teenage girl growingly feels alienated at work and takes her own life months after the job training.

In the two-part story, police official Oh Yoo-jin (Bae Doona) tries to get to the bottom of her death and uncovers that uncomfortable truth behind the company and school.

Although the film was based on a 2016 incident, the director, also known as July Jung, thought the story was worth telling because problems related to vocational schools' job training programs still remain.

Jung unfolds the story from a larger context that exposes the structural problems behind the job training programs, which have long been criticized for not fulfilling their original purpose of giving hands-on experiences for students.

The poster of Korean film "Next Sohee" is seen in this photo provided by production company Twin Plus Partners. Yonhap

"Even after the incident, I learned that students who were assigned to job training programs lost their lives, were injured or committed suicide. So I decided to write a story and make it into a movie," Jung said in a media round interview. "It was hard for me to write the story. I felt emotionally hurt and exhausted."

The 43-year-old said she...