South Korean independent film “Star of Ulsan” is a tough stuff to watch for good reasons. As following the gloomy daily life of one strong-willed woman and several others around her, the movie presents a daunting slice of life to observe, and you will admire how it avoids any cheap pity or sentimentality before eventually earning a little but precious sign of hope and endurance at the end of its grim but undeniably powerful human drama.

At the beginning, the story, which is set in a South Korean industrial port city named Ulsan, introduces its several main characters one by one. First, we are introduced to a middle-aged woman named Yoon-hwa (Kim Geun-soon), and then we see her getting suddenly injured on her hand while working at a local shipyard as usual. Although she may have to get some rest for recovering a bit from her serious physical injury, she tries to keep working as before, but then she is notified that she will be laid off sooner or later. Mainly because she has diligently worked there instead of her dead husband for around 20 years, Yoon-hwa naturally becomes quite exasperated, but it looks like there is really nothing she can do about that, even though it is possible that the company is very unfair to her from the beginning.

Yoon-hwa has endured a lot for providing a better lite to her two children, but neither of her two children does not appreciate her sacrifice that much, and they see no future in their increasingly hopeless hometown. While he managed to graduate as a college student, Se-jin (Choi Woo-bin) does not seem to be trying more for getting employed, and he has actually been more occupied with earning a lot via Bitcoin. In case of Kyeong-hee (Jang Min-young), she is not interested in going to college at all, and we see how she attempts to pursue the career of a makeup artist even though she does not get much attention despite her frequent online promotion.

We are also introduced to several family members of Yoon-hwa’s dead husband. Her dead husband’s uncle and aunt happen to need a considerable amount of cash for their loser son who recently got divorced, and they are going to persuade Yoon-hwa to agree on selling a certain piece of family real estate which has belonged to her for many years, though they know too well that Yoon-hwa will instantly object to that.

However, the situation surrounding that real estate asset turns out to be quite complicated. When it seems that she really needs to bribe her direct supervisor for not getting laid off, Yoon-hwa naturally checks whether she can draw a quick loan from that real estate asset, but she only comes to learn instead that her son has been making a much bigger mess than she thought at first. Needless to say, her son soon finds himself getting cornered in more than one way as expected, and it seems that there is not any easy way out for him at all.

What happens next among Yoon-hwa and her several family members is not so pleasant to say the least. When they all eventually gather at Yoon-hwa’s residence, the tension among them is palpable to us even though they do not tell everything to each other, and we come to brace ourselves more as things get gloomier for them along the story.

And we also get to know more about how much each of them is pressured under more despair and hopelessness. No matter how much she fights and protests against the unfair treatments at her workplace, Yoon-hwa only gets herself cornered more and more, and that consequently makes her rather hostile to some of her close colleagues. While Se-jin turns out to have a really desperate motive behind his very unwise Bitcoin speculation, Kyeong-hee becomes more willing to get out of the city as soon as possible, and one of a few tender moments in the film comes from how she bonds with a schoolmate of hers via their shared wish. In case of Yoon-hwa’s in-laws, they are not bad people at all, and they also are as despaired as Yoon-hwa and her two children, while still feeling quite conflicted about their precious family asset.

This is surely depressing to watch at times, but the movie keeps us engaged via its solid storytelling and vivid characterization, and the main cast members are believable in their respective roles. Kim Geum-soon, who recently drew my attention more for her stellar performance in Jeong Ji-hye’s notable debut feature film “Jeong-sun” (2002), firmly holds the center with her uncompromising performance, and she willingly embodies warts and all for bringing more life and personality to her unforgettable character. Choi Woo-bin and Jang Min-young hold well each own place around Kim as having each own moment to shine, and Do Jung-hwan, Im Hyeong-tae, Byun Joon-hee, and Lim Jung-min are also solid in their crucial supporting roles.

Overall, “Star of Ulsan”, which is incidentally the first feature film of director Jung Ki-hyuk, is definitely not something you can casually watch on Sunday afternoon, but it is worthwhile to watch for several good reasons including its strong lead performance. Although nothing is certain for everyone including Yoon-hwa even at the end of the story, they somehow find more will and strength for enduring a bit more at least, and you may sincerely hope that they will somehow prevail in the end.