Review | Cannes 2022: Next Sohee movie review – Kim Si-eun, Bae Doona face social outrage in gritty drama by A Girl at My Door director July Jung
- Next Sohee is a condemnation of the exploitation and abandonment of young people in South Korea by employers, schools and the authorities alike
- Kim puts in a powerful performance as a student crushed by her work at a call centre. Bae is the jaded detective who investigates her demise and seeks justice
4/5 stars
In 2014, July Jung jolted audiences at the Cannes Film Festival (and then elsewhere) with A Girl at My Door, a gritty social drama in which alcoholics and bullies of all shapes and sizes run amok in a small town in South Korea.
Returning to Cannes with her latest film, she presents villains in an even wider spectrum in society. Revolving around a student called Sohee and her spiralling life as a call centre worker, Next Sohee is a full-throated condemnation of the exploitation and abandonment of disfranchised young people by employers, schools and the authorities alike.
Bolstered by a quietly heart-wrenching performance from Kim Si-eun (Love Alarm), Next Sohee is a powerful takedown on common preconceptions of South Korea as a wonderland for pretty faces. Tracking its protagonist’s transformation from a vociferous teenager to a desolate wreck, Jung has offered a scything look of society as a black hole for the young.
Next Sohee is delineated into two halves that could be described as the “personal” and the “political”.