ACF - Asian Cinema Fund

2023 Post-Production Fund

LIST Work to Do

Synopsis

KANG Jun-hee, a fourth-year assistant manager at Hanyang Heavy Industries is assigned to the human resources department.
As the shipyard suffers a dearth of orders, the creditors instruct HR to restructure the company. Although reluctant, the team accepts it as inevitable if the company is to stay afloat.
HR proceed with the restructuring as smoothly and efficiently as possible. Attempting to set the criteria for dismissal in the company’s favor, the team first tries to elect employee representatives who will cater to the demands of management. Some so-called blacklisted employees, fully aware of standard procedures, start to apply the brakes…

Director's Note

Seen from the outside, it appears that when a corporation undergoes restructuring conflict arises between two parties - labor and management. However, the perspective from within tells a different story. The ones that give the orders only look on from a distance, while the workers point fingers at each other. It ends up in a clash of interests between colleagues who are only doing their best according to their assigned positions and roles. All that is left, in the end, is the shattered bonds between coworkers, and a temporary sense of relief for those who have survived for now. In this fight, there is only defeat in the face of the enormous power of capital, followed by the lingering anxiety that one might still be fired at any time.

Most stories dealing with labor issues have been those of direct victims of restructuring fighting against the corporation. I ask what it would be like to work in HR as implementers of restructuring; as workers just doing their jobs. I want to share with the audience a story about the nature of the labor environment in our time, through the eyes of individuals at various levels of the restructuring process.

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