Sea Fog

Captain Kan Chul-joo (Yun-seok Kim) is completely stuck in life. Fishing is bad, his boat is rusting and his wife is cheating on him. As a last economic rescue he decides to smuggle a group of people from China to a better life in South Korea. Everything seems to go according to the plan, but when the refugees are put in the cargo compartment as an unknown ship is passing by, a fatal gas leak turns the situation upside down. The scenes that occur afterwards are both shocking and disturbing, and show how far people are willing to go to claim their innocence. In the midst of the tragedy arises an unthinkable love affair between a crewmember and a surviving refugee. The relationship ends up being the only hint of something civilized on a ship where everything else is on the brink of moral collapse.

Sea Fog is an impressive representation of moral decline. In the roles we find several of South Korea's most experienced actors. Especially already mentioned Yung-seok Kim (Chaser, The Yellow Sea) impresses as an atypical bad guy. The film has some really claustrophobic close-up scenes, and the recurrent fog makes an almost ghostly atmosphere on board of the rusty fish boat where most of the action takes place.

The film was South Korea's contribution to this year's Academy Award and had its international premiere at the Toronto Film Festival in 2014. Director Sung-bo Shim has recruited merited Joo-hoo Bong (Snowpiercer, Memories of Murder) as producer for the film. It is not unlikely that Shong is the new big name in the wave of new, interesting South Korean directors, including names such as Bong and Chan-wook Park (Stoker, Lady Vengeance).

Sea Fog is Sung-bo Shim's (b. 1972) debut as a director. He has previously been working as a writer for star director Joo-honh Bong, who produced Sea Fog. He has also written scripts for TV. According to Shim, the help from the experienced Bong has been really valuable working with the big crew at the set of Sea Fog.