K-Content News

(Movie Review) 'Work to Do': anguish of a worker tasked with enforcing layoffs

  By Shim Sun-ah

SEOUL, Sept. 17 (Yonhap) -- The Korean drama film "Work to Do" offers a realistic and compelling portrayal of a company on the brink of financial collapse, where the responsibility of executing layoffs falls on employees who share the same uncertain future.

Kang Jun-hee (Jang Sung-bum), a mid-level employee in his fourth year at Hanyang Heavy Industries, is thrust into the harrowing world of corporate downsizing when he joins the personnel team. His assignment is clear but cruel: compile a list of 150 workers to be laid off, as demanded by the company's creditors.

Jun-hee finds himself cornered. His reluctance to carry out the order is overshadowed by personal desperation -- he needs the salary to marry his pregnant girlfriend and repay hefty loans on an apartment. This personal struggle adds depth to a character forced to navigate the morally murky waters of corporate survival.

The personnel team's strategy is coldly efficient: crafting a list that includes as many "undesirable" employees as possible as the management wants. At first, Jun-hee tries to rationalize the task, hoping that performance assessments, age and background can serve as an "objective" filter.

However, office politics rears its ugly head. General managers push for their favorites to stay, while others are shuffled onto the list for petty reasons, unraveling Jun-hee's sense of fairness.
  His mental distress reaches its peak when he is forced to choose between including his respected senior or his close friend on the list. The emotional weight of this decision plunges him into deep personal conflict, capturing the crushing reality of workers who are pitted against one another in the face of layoffs.

But the hardest part is yet to come. After finalizing the list, the personnel team must meet each of the 150 employees face-to-face, persuading them to sign off on voluntary retirement before they are formally dismissed.

Workers, who had dedicated their youth to the company, express their shock and despair, questioning why they must bear the consequences of the company's failures.
  Unlike many domestic indie films that focus on the employees facing layoffs, "Work to Do" offers a fresh approach by centering on the individual responsible for carrying out the layoffs.

The film dives into the ethical dilemmas and emotional burdens shouldered by those tasked with enforcing the layoffs -- people who are, in many ways, in the same precarious position as the ones they are firing.

Director Park Hong-jun, drawing from his own experiences in a shipbuilding company's personnel department, adds authenticity to the film, while also blending elements of fiction to flesh out the characters and their inner worlds.

Premiered at the 2023 Busan International Film Festival, "Work to Do" has already garnered critical acclaim, winning awards at both BIFF and the Seoul Independent Film Festival in the same year.

Its cast also includes Seo Seok-gyu, Kim Do-young, Kim Young-woong, Jang Ri-woo and Lee Noh-ah.

The film is set for release in local theaters Sept. 25.