With six films opening in succession — including "Assassin(s)," "Tazza: Song of Beelzebub," "Resurrection Man: The Red" and "A Possible Love" — competition in this year's Chuseok holiday box office is shaping up to be fiercer than ever. Picking the top earner is difficult, but "The Intern," which takes a warm look at how younger and older generations can coexist, stands out among them.
"The Intern" is a remake of the 2015 film of the same name starring Anne Hathaway and Robert De Niro, which drew about 3.61 million viewers in South Korea. Director Kim Do-young, known as a "master of remakes" for films including "Kim Ji-young, Born 1982" and "What If We," is behind the camera.
The film begins as Gi-ho (Choi Min-sik), who spent 37 years making maps in the publishing industry, decides to return to work as a silver intern. After retiring and losing his wife, Gi-ho parts one by one with the things that were familiar to him. He then sees a job posting for a silver intern at the fashion startup Wootutu, applies, and becomes an intern reporting directly to CEO Seon-woo (Han So-hee) on a three-month contract. Silver interns remain an unfamiliar presence in South Korean society, but in an era when people must keep working past retirement age, it is a scene the country will face before long. In that sense, the film naturally invites viewers to imagine a future in which the old and the young live side by side.
Choi Min-sik creates in Gi-ho a "true elder" who fills the gaps of the younger generation with experience and seasoned judgment, while Han So-hee delicately conveys the anxiety and loneliness of a successful CEO. The "secret space" scene, in particular, deserves to be called the highlight of the Korean version. As Gi-ho leads Seon-woo there, the pieces fall into place as to why he became her silver intern. A Korean sensibility that treasures the past dovetails with the kind of consideration that notices what someone else needs and quietly offers it, producing warm and calming moments. One shortcoming, though, is that even as the film depicts a Korean office, it falls short on the small but telling details that convey the joys and sorrows of working life — lunch menus, snacks and office crushes.
"The Intern" is closer to a warm imagining of the near future: one in which the old, who have experience but struggle with change, and the young, who are at ease with change but short on experience, fill in each other's blanks and live together. That makes it a film like a steaming bowl of gomtang, offering warmth to those worn down by office life. Opens on the 16th. Rated for viewers 12 and over. 132 minutes.
