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[HanCinema's News] "Set Play" the Latest South Korean Film to Deal With Disaffected Youth

In three months time, "Bleak Night" will be enjoying its ten year anniversary. Though not as flashy as more mainstream releases or more auteur styled films from South Korean directors, "Bleak Night" has been a huge influence on South Korean film over this time. It almost single-handedly created the disaffected youth genre of South Korean film. "Park Hwa-young" is another such movie from 2018. And "Set Play", which releases on December 10th, will be still another one.

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Such movies tend to be popular on the domestic South Korean film festival circuit due to their apparent timeliness. The South Korean film industry is serious about fostering new talent so as to insure its longevity, and films about youth often establish the relevant directors as being on the cutting edge of South Korean culture. "Bleak Night" director Yoon Sung-hyun got the chance to direct "Time to Hunt", a movie with similar themes but a bigger budget, on the strength of his "Bleak Night" reputation.

But on the smaller scale such subject matter often allows for less established directors to make a similar second picture in the wake of positive reaction to the first. Director Lee Hwan of "Park Hwa-young" recently screened "Young Adult Matters" at the Busan International Film Festival to popular acclaim. Nevertheless, while the two movies have common themes, the content is quite different, with "Park Hwa-young" being a social character study while "Young Adult Matters" deals with society.

Yoon Sung-hyun and Lee Hwan's transformations are not unique. In general disaffected youth films have taken on a more hostile tone in recent years with characters expressing more direct rage against the system that oppresses them. Director Moon Seung-wook of "Set Play" also differs significantly from these other two directors in that he is both older than them, and has more of an established history with documentaries.

The evolution of the trend has thus been a culmination of an increased clash between artistry, commercialism, and ongoing social conflict as such movies increasingly find a disaffected target audience through OTT services. The pedagogical value of such films is dubious compared to documentaries, although there's no denying that they've found an audience. The content of these movies has also taken on a cryptic, precautionary subtext, seeming to warn that South Korea's next generation is on edge.

Written by William Schwartz

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