Pluto
Su-won Shin
»Korea has the highest teen suicide rate in the world and the main reason is the pressure they’re under in preparation for university entrance. […] Like Pluto, the story revolves around students who are ousted because of the competitive nature of Korean schools. The strong survive and the weak are forgotten. This system has been exhausting students for years. Being an educator, I wanted to question whether this is right or wrong by making this film.«
– Su-won Shin
The students at this boarding school have to compete for the ten best places in the elite class, and only one of those ten will be admitted to Seoul National University. June is new to the school, having only recently managed to transfer. But no matter how hard he studies, his exam results are poor and he is beginning to despair.
When Yujin, his room-mate and straight-A’s candidate, is found dead in the woods, June falls under suspicion but the police cannot prove anything and release him. Yet June’s own investigations lead him to the machinations of the top group, open up a morass of unrelenting competition and finally cause him to take drastic measures.
Using a thriller template and borrowings from horror movies, Su-won Shin gives an object lesson about the Korean school system and its merciless focus on highest performance and elite formation.
Su-won Shin
Director Su-won Shin was born 1967 in Korea. She graduated from Seoul National University and began her career as a teacher at a middle high school. During her time as a teacher, she wrote and published two novels about teenage life. She resigned from teaching after ten years and enrolled at the Korea National University of Arts to study scriptwriting. After graduation there, she started to make films. Her works are now screened worldwide – including at the Berlin International Film Festival.
Films by Su-won Shin
Circle Line 2012 | Women with a Movie Camera 2011 | Passerby #3 2010 | Shave 2003