You earn as much as you work, and you live off that money. This simple proposition has always been a problem for Jung-cheol. At the soybean paste factory he went to work for in the bitter winter, he dreams of travelling to warm Philippines in spring - as long as he survives the winter making his portion of the soybean paste that he promised the boss. But the more he struggles to live, the worse it gets. And soon, the fermentation room turns musty with the black mold spreading from the thousands of ferment boiled soybean lumps.
Acting
Park Jung-bum directs himself into physical exhaustion you can smell.
Cinematography
Winter whites and fermentation blacks—visually suffocating.
Production
Actual soybean paste factory. That mold? Mostly real.
Director
Park Jung-bum
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Park Jung-bum lived at the actual factory for months to prepare. The crew initially thought he was a real worker.
Korean doenjang (soybean paste) traditionally symbolizes domestic virtue and patience; Park weaponizes this nostalgia into something rotting.
KR
