Metrograph

Deftly moving between the stories of Joon (Paul Lee), a North Korean emigre working illegally at a gas station in Seoul, and Hyun (Yeom Hyun-joon), a young gay man financially dependent on his older lover, the lyrical, elegantly composed second film in Kim’s Things Trilogy discovers unexpected parallels in the lives of its dual protagonists—as well as that of Soon-hee (Kim Sae-byuk), Joon’s co-worker, an ethnic Korean newly arrived from China who’s forced to endure sexual harassment on the job—and in doing so offers a blistering critique of South Korean society’s brutal treatment of marginalized and alienated individuals living on its fringes. “A brave and uncompromising vision!” —Frieze