After leaving a strong impression as Protestant minister Baek Isak in the Apple TV+ series “Pachinko,” Noh Sang-hyun makes his big screen debut with “Love in the Big City,” where he plays a young gay man living in Seoul. When asked if people around him ever commented on or worried about him playing an LGBTQ+ character for his first-ever movie role, Noh simply said he was determined to play Heung-soo. “I understand why people worried (about me playing Heung-soo), but

For “House of the Seasons” director Oh Jung-min, a family is like tofu. “The process of making tofu is quite arduous. You have to soak beans for a long time, boil them, grind them and filter until they become softer, but only a small amount of tofu is made at the end. Plus, you have to be careful not to put too much salt,” director Oh told The Korea Herald in an interview in Seoul on Sept. 12. The 35-year-old director said that’s why he made the characters in his de

In writer Kim Hye-jin’s best-selling novel, “Concerning My Daughter,” the story is told from 50-something Sang-ok’s point of view. She is a caregiver at a nursing home, and an unexpected life event occurs in which she is forced to live with her adult daughter and her daughter’s girlfriend of seven years in her rundown house. Distancing the film from the original novel, director Lee Mi-rang, who has made her directorial debut with film “Concerning My Daughter

While people’s obsession and dependence on social media services have only grown stronger in recent years, social media use can be a double-edged sword. It can be a tool used to gain important information and spread useful tips, or it can be a means to stalk people or even plot a crime. In director Kim Se-hwi’s debut film, “Following,” a real estate agent named Gu Jeong-tae (Byun Yo-han) has a strange if not perverse habit of peeping into other people’s lives. Whether it’s a person living next d

Director Jeong Ji-hye, 29, depicts in great detail an ordinary woman in her 50s in her feature film debut “Jeong-sun.” The concept was based on Jeong's year-long experience working part-time at a food packaging factory -- the same setting where the protagonist Jeong-sun works and faces an unexpected event. “While working at the factory, I became close with many middle-aged women who worked there. I could hear their life stories and about the environment they were in,” Jeong told The Korea Herald

Despite having never attended a "hagwon" or private cram school herself, director Kim Da-min's debut film, "FAQ," confronts the topic of South Korea's obsession with private education, centering on the story of Dong-chun, an 11-year-old girl. The film's English title doesn’t fully convey its creative and witty yet powerful spirit as well as its Korean title does: “Makgeolli will let you know” (direct translation). Makgeolli is Korean traditional rice wine. “I think I would prefer to translate th

In her 2010 short indie film “A Brand New Journey,” Kim depicts the agony of a middle school student whose parents can’t afford the money for a school trip. Although the boy finds a way to save up money for the trip by taking on a part-time job, he is harassed by the tyrannical shop owner who doesn't pay him. “I was attracted to the stories of marginalized people, whether I met them in my personal life or in books. So it was natural for me to shed light on the lives of such people through a stor

Director Bae Du-ri came up with the original idea for her feature debut film “Dolphin” back in 2018. The movie centers on Na-young (Kwon Yu-ri), a 35-year-old woman in a seaside town whose only joy is caring for her mother and younger brother. After a troubled childhood, she is now settled into a calmer life, working as a journalist at a local newspaper. When her mother decides to sell the house and her brother insists on moving to Seoul, Na-young, struggling to accept these changes, discovers s