2018 film by Choi Kook-hee
Default (Korean: 국가부도의 날; Hanja: 國家不渡의 날; RR: Gukga-budo-eui Nal; lit. "National Bankruptcy Day") is a 2018 South Korean drama film directed by Choi Kook-hee.[2] The film was released on November 28, 2018.[3][4][5] Starring Kim Hye-soo, Yoo Ah-in, Heo Joon-ho, Jo Woo-jin, and Vincent Cassel, it is the first Korean film concerning the IMF financial crisis as its main subject.[6]
Plot
Default dramatizes the behind-the-scenes story of the IMF negotiations that took place during the financial crisis in 1997[7][8] through three parallel stories.[9]
Factory owner Gap-su (Huh Joon-ho) wins a contract to supply metal bowls to a big department store, but the store pays him with a promissory note — and so by accepting it, Gap-su unknowingly exposes himself to the risk that his customer won't be able to pay him. This backfires when the department store goes bankrupt, leaving Gap-su without the funds to pay his suppliers.
Meanwhile, a young financial analyst named Jung-hak (Yoo Ah-in) hears stories on the radio about families in distress — particularly those selling their homes below market price to pay bills resulting from small business bankruptcies. Seeking to profit from this situation, Jung-hak sets up his own investment fund to bet against the Korean economy.
Finally, the governor of Korea's central bank reads a report from his head of monetary policy, a woman named Si-hyun (Kim Hye-soo). Si-hyun's report concludes that Korea will run out of foreign reserves which serves to peg the Korean won's artificially fixed exchange rate to the US dollar within a week. This triggers an emergency meeting of top government officials, who must keep the Korean economy from collapsing.[10]
These three stories show the 1997 financial crisis from different perspectives. Si-hyun's story shows how the government acted during the crisis, Jung-hak's narrative frames the downturn in economic terms, and Gap-su represents millions of real Korean small business owners who suffered in 1997. At each of these levels, Default embodies the trauma resulting from the crisis: we see characters desperate to sell their homes, drowning their sorrows in soju, and even committing suicide.[11]
Production
The read-through of the script occurred on December 7, 2017.[15] Principal photography began on December 12, 2017.[16]
Release
The film was released in local cinemas on November 28, 2018.[17][18] It was previously screened at the 71st Cannes International Film Festival's Marché du Film in May 2018. It was also screened at the 3rd International Film Festival & Awards Macau at the Special Presentations on December 9, 2018.[19][20] Ahead of its local release, the film was sold to 17 territories including USA, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, Indonesia, Hong Kong and Macao.[21]
Reception
Box office
On its opening day in South Korea, Default accumulated 301,324 viewers, taking nearly 40% of the box office and also taking the first place from Bohemian Rhapsody at the box office.[22][23]
On the fifth day of its release, Default surpassed 1 million admissions, and during the first weekend of its release, Default garnered 1,573,441 viewers, securing the first place at the box office for its first weekend.[24] Default became the highest November opening in the history of the Korean box office.[25]
After topping the charts its first two weekends, it has since clocked up 3,755,233 admissions in its home country.[26]
Critical response
On Korean review aggregator Naver Movie Database, the film holds an approval rating of 6.50 from critic reviews and 8.74 from the audience.[27] The Hollywood Reporter's Clarence Tsui called it "An engaging multi-strand story about a nation in turmoil", and wrote, "[...] director Choi Kook-hee has sought to fill that void in a dramatic and furious exposition of causes and effects as seen through the eyes of his three protagonists, who experience the crisis up close in different ways. [...] Choi and his screenwriter Eom Seong-min turn mind-boggling macroeconomic concepts into emotions aimed at the viewers' heart. On the downside, this tends to lead to the film defaulting toward the simplistic and melodramatic."[28] Pierce Conran from Screen Anarchy suggested that, "The film borrows heavily from recent global financial thrillers, stirs in a predictable dose of melodrama and attempts to tackle women's equality", but concluded, "Technically the film is polished, but as it deliberately seeks to evoke a glum atmosphere it comes off as a little drab."[29]
