''Cart'' () is a 2014 South Korean
drama film
In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...
directed by
Boo Ji-young about employees of a retail supermarket who band together when the
contract workers are
laid off, it is both an
ensemble drama
Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...
and a
social critique
Social criticism is a form of academic or journalistic criticism focusing on social issues in contemporary society, in respect to perceived injustices and Power (social and political), power relations in general.
Social criticism of the Enlighte ...
.
It made its world premiere in the City to City: Seoul sidebar of the
2014 Toronto International Film Festival
The 39th annual Toronto International Film Festival, the 39th event in the Toronto International Film Festival series, was held in Canada from 4–14 September 2014. David Dobkin (director), David Dobkin's film ''The Judge (2014 film), The Judg ...
. ''Cart'' will also screen at the
19th Busan International Film Festival and the 34th
Hawaii International Film Festival
Hawaii ( ; ) is an island state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only state not on the North American mainland, th ...
.
Plot
Sun-hee, a veteran cashier and mother of two, works at a large retail supermarket alongside Hye-mi, a single mother. Both are friendly with Soon-rye, a cleaning lady nearing
retirement
Retirement is the withdrawal from one's position or occupation or from one's active working life. A person may also semi-retire by reducing work hours or workload.
Many people choose to retire when they are elderly or incapable of doing their j ...
age, and all of them are
temporary work
Temporary work or temporary employment (also called gigs) refers to an employment situation where the working arrangement is limited to a certain period of time-based on the needs of the employing organization. Temporary employees are sometimes ...
ers. Sun-hee is a model employee who works diligently in the belief that once she gets
promoted as a
regular worker, she'll be able to provide more for her children. However, their corporate employer abruptly notifies them that all the temporary workers will be
laid off. Faced with these
wrongful dismissals, Sun-hee, Hye-mi, Soon-rye, and fellow female employees such as naive
ajumma Ok-soon and twenty-something Mi-jin, resolve to go on
strike
Strike may refer to:
People
*Strike (surname)
* Hobart Huson, author of several drug related books
Physical confrontation or removal
*Strike (attack), attack with an inanimate object or a part of the human body intended to cause harm
* Airstrike, ...
. They stage a series of increasingly impassioned protests against the company's exploitative practices, which gains more strength when junior manager Dong-joon, the only male representative of the store's
labor union
A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...
, joins in. The shy and passive Sun-hee, who finds herself thrust to the demonstrations' front lines, discovers within herself untapped resources of determination and resilience, which has an unexpected effect on her relationship with her estranged high school-age son, Tae-young. But as the women realize the power they can wield by taking a mutual stand, the company plays the workers against each other and Hye-mi, the leader of the strike, caves to the company's pressure and gives up.
Cast
*
Yum Jung-ah as Sun-hee
*
Moon Jeong-hee as Hye-mi
*
Kim Young-ae as Madam Soon-rye
*
Kim Kang-woo
Kim Kang-woo (; born July 11, 1978), who debuted in 2002. He is known for his work in various fields such as movies, dramas, and theater, and is a graduate of Chung-Ang University's Department of Theater and Film. He is best known from his roles ...
as Dong-joon
*
Doh Kyung-soo as Tae-young
* Hwang Jeong-min as Ok-soon
*
Chun Woo-hee as Mi-jin
*
Lee Seung-joon as Section chief Choi
*
Ji Woo
Choi Ji-woo (; born November 25, 1997), known mononymously as Ji Woo, is a South Korean actress. She started her career as a child actress with her debut movie '' Villain and Widow'' in 2010.
Life and career
She attended Morak Middle School.
...
as Soo-kyung
*
Park Soo-young as Manager
* Song Ji-in as Ye-rin
* Hwang Jae-won as Min-soo
* Kim Soo-an as Min-young
*
Lee Seon-hee as Cashier
*
Kim Hyun as Cashier
*
Kim Hee-won as Convenience store boss (
cameo)
*
Gil Hae-yeon as Real customer (cameo)
Background
The film is largely inspired by a 2007 incident in which
Homever
Homeplus () is a Korean discount store retail chain running about 140 branches with 25,000 employees throughout South Korea. Homeplus is the second largest retailer in South Korea, behind Shinsegae Group's e-mart chain.
Homeplus operates it ...
, a supermarket chain owned by
E-Land Group, dismissed temporary workers, mostly women, and replaced them with
outsourced employees to bypass a new law requiring that employees be given regular-worker status after a certain period. Dismissed employees and labor unions went on strike in front of the supermarket for 512 days until the matter was settled, with some employees reinstated. Director Boo Ji-young also studied the plight of irregular cleaning staff at major universities in Korea, including
Hongik and
Yonsei.
Awards and nominations
References
External links
*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cart (film)
2014 films
2010s Korean-language films
South Korean drama films
Myung Films films
Films about the labor movement
2010s South Korean films