The Net

Kim Ki-duk

South Korea, 2016

A highly original rumination on the question of what it means to be a Korean national today and on the suffering caused by the peninsula’s political division, The Net is the thought-provoking latest film by the bad boy of Korean cinema, Kim Ki-duk (Pieta). Nam Chul-woo (Ryoo Seung-bum) is a poor fisherman living a simple but happy life with his family in North Korea. After inadvertently drifting into South Korea, Nam is immediately seized by South Korean border police and thrust into a brutal investigation. As his ordeal intensifies, it becomes apparent that, even should he manage to return home, his life in North Korea will never be the same. Ryoo Seung-bum’s charismatic portrayal of Nam gives human weight to a film that is ultimately about the invisible prisons that ideology creates around people.—Toronto International Film Festival

In Korean with English Subtitles