South Korean independent film “Will You Please Stop, Please” is often painfully funny as following the ongoing hardships of its rather meek heroine. While usually quite busy with doing one task after another at her workplace, she finds herself cornered into more fatigue and desperation day by day, and that is not so far from what many young working people in South Korea have to endure everyday. Nevertheless, instead of merely resorting to despair and frustration, the movie shows some sense of humor and spirit as she keeps struggling for better days to come, and it certainly earns its optimistic closing scene.

The story, which consists of five separate chapters, begins with how things are usually hectic for Hye-in (Kim Yeon-kyo), a young woman who has worked for 5 years at a small publishing company associated with some big Buddhist temple. As the youngest member in the company, she is always the one expected to take care of many small and big tasks, and the opening chapter humorous depicts her one particularly busy day. At first, it seems that all she will have to do is going to a local post office for sending a book to one of their most prominent customers, but then more tasks come upon her, and that surely pressures her a lot before her working hour is eventually over.

Hye-in works under the two senior employees, who do not look like caring that much about their junior employee’s feelings but are still capable of supporting her to some degree when that seems necessary. At one point, they decide to have a little lunch together in their office, but their little private time happens to be interrupted by a certain senior male employee. As he behaves like your average free-range male rude in front of Hye-in and her senior employees, Hye-in naturally feels quite embarrassed, but she does not dare to express her displeasure, and then there comes a point where her senior employees finally come to decide that enough is enough.

Meanwhile, Hye-in and her senior employees soon come to have another busy period as they are about to publish the monthly magazine of their temple. Again, Hye-in is tasked with a lot of tasks including those usual editing and proofreading jobs, and there is a darkly humorous moment when what she worked on for several hours is irreversibly obliterated by a sudden computer error. If you have ever had such a stressful experience like that, you will surely understand how frustrating it is for her.

While often getting quite exasperated at her workplace, Hye-in tries to find some peace and comfort via the routine group activities inside the temple, though that is not always successful to our little amusement. As shown from the opening scene, her mind is sometimes so stressed out that her mind often gets sleepy or distracted, and that leads to another amusing moment to tickle us.

In the end, there comes an unexpected moment when she happens to do some overtime work at one night. Regardless of whether this moment is real or imagined, Hye-in comes to find some strength for keeping moving on no matter whatever she is expected to do next, though she still feels that her job is as thankless as ever.

Naturally, Hye-in considers quitting her job at times, but, of course, that is not so easy to do to say the least. Whenever her little wage is transferred to her bank account, most of her wage is quickly gone due to not only her scholarship loan but many other things she has to pay every month, and that makes her more reflective about where her life is going now. Just like her senior employees, she attempts to be more productive during her free time, but she is often too exhausted to do anything else after her working hour, and that makes her all the more despaired than before.

Around the end of the story, there comes a sort of breaking point for our very frustrated heroine, but the screenplay by Heisong still maintains its lightweight sense of humor. When Hye-in and her senior employees have to deal with one particularly rude customer of theirs, Hye-in comes to have a little moment of inner conflict, and the movie does not hesitate to go for some surreal touches during that scene. When Hye-in’s senior employees later come to show more support for her, this scene becomes surprisingly touching, and we certainly come to cheer for their little but precious moment of solidarity.

The main cast members give engaging performances under the competent direction of director Kim Eun-young, who makes a feature film debut here. While Kim Yeon-kyo ably carries the film with her fine comic performance, Jang Liu and Son Ye-won have each own moment as Hye-in’s senior employees, and Lim Ho-jun and Kim Geum-soon also have a little fun with their rather unpleasant supporting characters.

In conclusion, “Will You Please Stop, Please” is enjoyable for its sharply humorous moments, and it does not waste any of its rather short running time (63 minutes). I must tell you that there have already been a lot of South Korean independent films about how it is often difficult for young people to live and work in the South Korean society, but this movie distinguishes itself a bit as showing some hope and optimism, and that is surely something to be cherished in my trivial opinion.