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A student enters the call center
In the Korean drama “Next Sohee,” a high school student’s workplace training assignment becomes the center of a wider examination of corporate abuse, institutional indifference and the pressure schools place on young people to secure employment.
Written and directed by July Jung, the 2022 film follows Sohee, played by Kim Si-eun, a teenager who enjoys dancing before she is assigned to train at Human and Net, a customer service contractor for the fictional telecommunications company S-Plus. Her teacher presents the placement as a hard-won opportunity at a major corporation, but Sohee quickly discovers a harsher reality.
Her preparation includes makeup instruction and disparaging comments about the trainees’ appearances. Once she begins taking calls, she learns that the company’s priority is not simply helping customers who have technical problems or want to cancel service. Workers are expected to keep subscribers on the line, persuade them to retain their plans or sell them additional products.
Sohee faces callers who shout, curse and make sexually suggestive remarks. She also realizes that she is paid less because she is a trainee, even as managers judge her team against other S-Plus call centers and criticize workers for failing to rank first in sales.
Joon-ho, the team manager, is the only supervisor who appears to understand and support the trainees. Sohee later encounters the scene of his death while traveling to work. The film reveals that he had sent senior management a whistleblower letter expressing guilt over the exploitation of student workers, only to be ignored.
Pressure from the company and school
Joon-ho’s replacement, Lee Bo-ram, focuses on increasing sales and pressures Sohee to sign a document denying his allegations. Sohee reluctantly complies. Her strong performance then becomes another source of conflict when a co-worker accuses her of raising expectations for the other trainees.
After meeting her targets but receiving only part of her pay, Sohee begins processing cancellation requests instead of pushing customers toward other products. When her manager reprimands her, Sohee confronts the company over withheld wages and its treatment of trainees. The manager mocks her poverty and accuses her of begging for money. Sohee strikes the manager and receives a three-day unpaid suspension.
During the suspension, Sohee is tormented by having signed the document discrediting Joon-ho and is hospitalized after being injured. When she tells her teacher that she wants to leave the placement, the teacher scolds her and directs her to return. Depressed at the prospect of going back to the call center, Sohee spends an evening with friends and later dies by suicide.
A detective follows the chain of responsibility
The film’s second half shifts to Detective Yoo-jin, played by Bae Doona, who investigates after Sohee’s body is found. Yoo-jin reopens questions surrounding Joon-ho’s death and uncovers indications that Human and Net violated labor laws in its drive for sales. She also finds that the school irresponsibly sent students into workplace placements to meet employment-rate goals.
Administrators at both institutions portray Sohee as undisciplined and quick-tempered, placing responsibility on the teenager rather than examining their own conduct. Yoo-jin attempts to establish legal accountability, but her superior repeatedly orders her to abandon what he considers a troublesome case.
The film does not reveal whether the company or school ultimately changes its practices. It ends with Yoo-jin watching the only video recovered from Sohee’s phone: footage of the teenager practicing dance in a studio. Yoo-jin watches in tears, seeing the life that existed beyond the official descriptions of Sohee as an employee, trainee or case file.
Inspired by a real student’s death
Jung began developing the story after learning in late 2016 about a female high school student sent by her school to train at a telecommunications call center. The student died by suicide less than three months after beginning the job. An investigation found that she had worked under severe stress. “Next Sohee” is loosely inspired by that case rather than presented as a literal reconstruction.
The film is Jung’s second feature. Her debut, the 2014 crime drama “A Girl at My Door,” also starred Bae and was selected for the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival. Jung is credited with the screenplay for “Next Sohee,” while TMDb also lists Kim So-ryoung as a writer.
Filming ran from Jan. 16 to Feb. 28, 2022. The principal cast includes Shim Hee-sub as Joon-ho and Choi Hee-jin as Lee Bo-ram, alongside Park Woo-young, Lee In-young, Jung Hoi-rin, Kang Hyun-oh, Park Hee-eun and Kim Yong-jun. The Korean Film Council lists the movie at 137 minutes with a domestic rating restricting it to viewers 15 and older.
From Cannes to Korean film awards
“Next Sohee” premiered May 25, 2022, as a special screening in Cannes Critics’ Week, an independently organized section running alongside the Cannes Film Festival. It became the first Korean production selected as the section’s closing film and received a seven-minute standing ovation.
The movie later screened as the closing presentation in the Cheval Noir section of Montreal’s Fantasia International Film Festival, where Jung won best director and the film received a silver audience award for an Asian feature. It was also invited to competition in Amsterdam and screened at the Busan International Film Festival, the Palm Springs International Film Festival and the Pingyao International Film Festival. At Pingyao, it won the Roberto Rossellini Award for best film.
In South Korea, Kim won best new actress in the film category at the 2023 Baeksang Arts Awards, while Jung received the screenplay prize and the film won the Gucci Impact Award. The Korean Association of Film Critics named it best picture and honored Kim as best new actress. Jung also won best director at the Buil Film Awards, where Bae received the Yu Hyun-mok Film Arts Award and Kim again won for her debut performance. Jung later received the screenplay award at the Blue Dragon Film Awards.
North American release and critical response
The film opened in South Korea on Feb. 8, 2023, on 562 screens. By the end of that year, it had drawn 118,899 admissions and earned $858,534, ranking 41st among Korean films released in 2023. It became available on Korean internet television and streaming platforms beginning March 16, 2023.
Zurty Studios and Echelon Studios released the film in the United States and Canada on June 12, 2025, bringing its critique of outsourced customer service work and youth labor to North American audiences after its Palm Springs festival screening.
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film held a 94% positive rating from 17 reviews, with an average score of 8 out of 10. The Hollywood Reporter’s Patrick Brzeski called it a “hidden gem” of Cannes. Screen Daily critic Wendy Ide found the pacing slow but praised Jung’s restrained direction, minimal use of music and focus on empathetic performances, while arguing that the screenplay could have been sharper and more streamlined.
Clarence Tsui of the South China Morning Post awarded the film four out of five stars and praised Kim’s forceful performance as a student crushed by call center work. He described the first half as personal and the second, led by Bae’s investigation, as political. The Playlist’s Elena Lazic was less persuaded, giving the movie a C and arguing that its depiction of exploitation relied on overt drama and remained trapped in a narrow emotional register of anger and tragedy.
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