Review of the drama “Next Victim” by Jung Joo Ri

The drama “The Next Victim” by Chung Ju Ri, a student and follower of one of the living classics of South Korean cinema, Lee Chang-dong, has been released. He was also the producer of her first film, which participated in the Cannes Film Festival, as well as the new one. Almost ten years later, the director stepped out of her master’s shadow to talk about the quirks of South Korean vocational education that she observed Julia Shagelman.

The main character of Jung Joo Ri’s feature debut (2014), which combined a thriller and social drama, was played by actress Bae Doo Na, a policewoman who is transferred to the countryside for drunkenness, and there she unsuccessfully tries to protect a downtrodden teenage girl from bullying. Bae Doo Na, whom Russian audiences saw this summer in “The Go-Between” by Cannes favorite Hirokazu Kore-eda, appears again in the new film as a servant of the law who has not yet completely lost her conscience and compassion. But this will happen in the second half of the film, and in the first half the focus is on high school student Kim So Hee, who finds herself in a situation that is more reminiscent not of an ordinary industrial practice, but of a survival game like the one shown in the series “Squid Game” (in which the player Now a schoolgirl, the young actress Kim Shi-eun, by the way, also starred).

So Hee, in general, is no different from millions of her peers. She loves to dance, hang out with friends, and sometimes have a drink. Occasionally she gets into trouble because of her explosive temperament, but in general this does not prevent her from studying quite well, without upsetting her parents. And it is her school director who chooses her for an internship at the call center of a large telecommunications company. In fact, the direct employer will be a subcontractor, but this is still the first time that such an important potential employer has paid attention to the school, so it is very important that So Hee completes her internship with excellence and favorably establishes not only herself, but the entire educational institution.

The girl is not exactly delighted with the sudden responsibility, but she takes it for granted, because almost all of her friends are also doing internships, whether they want it or not. For example, dance partner Tae Joon (Kang Hyun Oh), for whom she has little more than friendly feelings, already works at some warehouse, and another friend, Dong Ho (Park Woo Young), works at a factory. So Hee does not have any suspicions when for some reason she is given two employment contracts to sign – she signs both of them without looking or reading the fine print.

The practice, however, turns out to be absolutely soul-sapping. The main task of So Hee and a couple of dozen of her colleagues – regular employees and fellow interns – is to answer calls from irritated clients who are ready to refuse the company’s services, and to persuade them not to do this, fooling them with “exclusive promotions”, “special offers”, etc. etc. Anyone who has ever had to conduct such conversations on the part of a client will find it quite difficult at first to sympathize with these young women, but quite quickly we are convinced that they themselves are under constant pressure from their superiors, who are constantly raising production standards and are openly cheating with payment and allows himself to simply yell at those who do not show sufficient zeal.

Artless, almost documentary filming, faded lighting, and the dominant gray color in the frame, erasing all other colors, emphasize how So Hee feels in this quiet corporate hell, how gradually, drop by drop, joy and interest in life flow out of her. However, it turns out to be impossible to escape from this trap: the school director insists that she continue to work, the company threatens fines, and the parents do not even notice what is happening to their daughter. The only path to freedom is indicated by her manager (Shim Hee Seop), who is found dead in his car in the office parking lot on a frosty morning: he committed suicide. The company, of course, quickly sweeps this incident under the rug, and everything continues as before until the next victim.

When investigator Oh Yoo Jin (Bae Doo Na) enters the scene, viewers already understand that So Hee’s story is not an isolated case, but a systemic problem. And Yu Jin’s futile attempts to break through the wall behind which teachers, employers and officials are hiding, shifting responsibility to each other, only reinforce this thesis. Towards the end, the film becomes even too straightforward, already pronouncing its message head-on. But since we are unlikely to be able to influence South Korean labor legislation, next time maybe we just won’t yell at the girl from technical support.