Here’s a film that was two major edits away from being a true gem. Oh, it was kinda good as is. But it went 134 minutes when it could have lost a plot, gone 95, and been extremely hard-hitting instead of tiresome. This is the sad fate of either too many ideas or lack of a great editor.
Titular heroine So-hee (Kim Si-Eun) is a high schooler at South Korea’s elite Abuse-hee program where kids are sent off to do menial things for no reward. Oh, the school gets the accolades and the bragging rights about how many kids it places in menial, unpaid and unrewarding jobs, but the kids themselves? Not sure they’re ever given a second thought. So-hee is pressed to take a marketing job at a local scam palace. Her job is to harass people all day into buying things they don’t need and ignoring their concerns.
The telemarketing company has preset scripts and responses. So-hee has to learn them and they’re all evil manipulations designed to pry money from the sympathetic or weak-minded. The kicker is So-hee is treated exactly like any other employee; she’s expected to play the game, work hard, and make quotas; her age and experience is absolutely irrelevant … UNTIL the subject of fair compensation comes up at which point, So-hee gets the “you’re only a child …” routine.
It takes very little time for So-hee to loathe her job and her life. Oooooo, so advanced, this one; she’s in high school, but already has the job hatred of a worker in her forties. And the question is “all for what?” What is the point of making So-hee so miserable? To boost sales for the telemarketing company? To 
boost the ego of the high school she attends? There is a serious disconnect between premise and reality in her world. Tragedy is watching this high school girl full of life and energy become something she hates.
And then the film changes and becomes a police/justice procedural for the next hour+. What?! And, don’t get me wrong, it’s not a bad procedural, but why does this happen? The film can work as an exposé of bad business practice and it can also work as a procedural, but these are almost literally two different films and together it feels like both First Sohee and Next Sohee.
There’s a decent film here at 134 minutes. There could have been a great film at 95 minutes. I do hope July Jung, a writer/director with a good command of finding a sympathetic audience, can learn from these films and just make one great one instead the next sohee time.
A high schooler who just loved to jam
Got involved in a telemarketing scam
So she gave up the beat
And sat in her seat
Answering call after call with “yes, ma’am”
Not Rated, 134 Minutes
Director: July Jung
Writer: July Jung
Genre: Criminal exposé or police procedural; we’re not sure which
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: The first Sohee?
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: The extremely tired
