There have been several movies involving digital sex crimes. But only a few, if any, unfold from a middle-aged woman’s perspective, overcoming the trauma of the crime as a victim, like the upcoming film “Jeong-sun.”The film drama, which is set to hit local theaters on April 17, revolves around an ordinary woman, named Jeong-sun (Kim Kum-soon). Working at a packing line at a food factory, she has been living a simple, modest life alone after raising her daughter, Yoo-jin (Yoonkeum Sun-ah), as a single mom.One day, a new worker, Yeong-su (Cho Hyun-woo), joins the factory, leading them to develop a secret workplace relationship. Her romance quickly turns into a nightmare when he shares with other workers a video of Jeong-sun singing to him in her underwear. The video ends up spreading through the community.“The film captures a part of Jeong-sun’s life. She, who raised her daughter alone, meets a new love, Yeong-su, but her life turns upside down when he leaks a private video he filmed of her. I tried to capture the gap and conflict between Jeong-sun, who suffered digital sexual violence, and her daughter Yoo-jin,” the director explained at a press conference for the film, held at CGV in Yongsan District, Seoul, Thursday.
Filmmaker Jeong Ji-hye’s directorial debut film has won eight awards globally, including the Grand Prize at the 23rd Jeonju International Film Festival and the Grand Jury Prize and Best Actress at the 17th Rome Film Fest in 2022. It has also been invited to a total of 19 international film festivals, including the BFI London Film Festival and the San Sebastian Film Festival. Jeonju International Film Festival said the film “captures the destructive force of cyber-exposure and shaming, and as such should touch a nerve with domestic audiences,” while the BFI London Film Festival introduced the film, saying that it tackles the “rarely explored theme of digital sexual assault on middle-aged women.” The director shared that she came up with the story from her personal experiences working with middle-aged women and coming across digital sex crimes.“In the past, I worked part-time at a food factory like Jeong-sun. Spending time with middle-aged female co-workers, I got to hear about the life experiences they had been through. Although we are both women, they come from a different generation and their lives inspired me to make a film with a middle-aged woman as the protagonist,” she said.
“Then later, I happened to get involved in a script about digital sex crimes by chance. Doing research, I was able to grasp the suffering the victims go through to some extent.”Jeong added she hopes the film will bring hope to the victims of the crimes and change the way society looks at them.“Because it’s digital, many might think that digital sex crimes only affect young people. However, I felt there might be individuals who are marginalized from such biases. As I was writing the script, I wanted people to realize there are those who experience situations similar to Jeong-sun and intended the film to urge (the audience) to see the issue from a mature perspective.”Kim portrays subtle but complex emotions as her character tries to overcome an enormous tragedy in her life.“The film does a good job depicting a series of events that a middle-aged woman faces after an incident and how she navigates through it,” the actor said.“(Digital sex crimes) can also happen to any middle-aged woman. I felt fortunate to have received such a precious script. I worked with the director to create the characters as we discussed.”The film will hit local theaters on 온라인카지노 April 17.