''Cart'' () is a 2014 South Korean film directed by Boo Ji-young about employees of a retail supermarket who band together when the contract workers are

laid off A layoff or downsizing is the temporary suspension or permanent termination of employment of an employee or, more commonly, a group of employees (collective layoff) for business reasons, such as personnel management or downsizing (reducing the ...

, it is both an

ensemble Ensemble may refer to: Art * Architectural ensemble * ''Ensemble'' (album), Kendji Girac 2015 album * Ensemble (band), a project of Olivier Alary * Ensemble cast (drama, comedy) * Ensemble (musical theatre), also known as the chorus * ''En ...

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...

and a social critique. 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's film '' The Judge'', starring Robert Downey Jr. and Robert Duv ...

. ''Cart'' will also screen at the 19th Busan International Film Festival and the 34th

Hawaii International Film Festival The Hawai'i International Film Festival (HIFF) is an annual film festival held in the United States state of Hawaii. HIFF has a focus on Asian-Pacific cinema, education, and the work of new and emerging filmmakers. HIFF’s primary festival is h ...

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

. Faced with these

wrongful dismissal In law, wrongful dismissal, also called wrongful termination or wrongful discharge, is a situation in which an employee's contract of employment has been terminated by the employer, where the termination breaches one or more terms of the contra ...

s, Sun-hee, Hye-mi, Soon-rye, and fellow female employees such as naive

ajumma Ajumma ( ko, 아줌마), sometimes spelled ajoomma, is a Korean word for a married, or middle-aged woman. It comes from the Korean word ''ajumeoni'' ( ko, 아주머니). Although it is sometimes translated "aunt An aunt is a woman who is a s ...

Ok-soon and twenty-something Mi-jin, resolve to go on

strike Strike may refer to: People * Strike (surname) Physical confrontation or removal *Strike (attack), attack with an inanimate object or a part of the human body intended to cause harm *Airstrike, military strike by air forces on either a suspected ...

. 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 (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...

, 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 Yum Jung-ah (born July 28, 1972) is a South Korean actress. Her notable films include '' A Tale of Two Sisters'' (2003), ''The Big Swindle'' (2004), ''The Old Garden'' (2007), and ''Cart'' (2014), as well as the television series ''Royal Family ...

as Sun-hee *

Moon Jung-hee Moon Jeong-hee (born January 12, 1976) is a South Korean stage, film, and television actress. She has won Blue Dragon Film Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in '' Deranged'' (2012) and Best Supporting Actress award in Buil F ...

as Hye-mi *

Kim Young-ae Kim Young-ae (; 21 April 1951 – 9 April 2017) was a South Korean actress. Career Kim Young-ae began her acting career when she joined MBC's 3rd Open Recruitment in 1971. She made her acting debut in the TV police procedural ''Chief Inspe ...

as Madam Soon-rye *

Kim Kang-woo Kim Kang-woo (born July 11, 1978) is a South Korean actor. He is best known from his roles in ''The Taste of Money'' and '' The Missing''. Career Kim Kang-woo majored in Theater and Film at Chung-Ang University. In early, Kim work as singer in 1 ...

as Dong-joon * Doh Kyung-soo as Tae-young * Hwang Jeong-min as Ok-soon *

Chun Woo-hee Chun Woo-hee (born April 20, 1987) is a South Korean actress. She made her acting debut in 2004, but first drew attention with her supporting role as a rebellious teenager in the 2011 box-office hit '' Sunny''. In 2014, Chun received critical ac ...

as Mi-jin * Lee Seung-joon as Section chief Choi *

Ji Woo Ji Woo (born Choi Ji-woo on November 25, 1997) is a South Korean actress. Life and career She attended Morak Middle School. In 2017, she was an honorary ambassador of the 9th DMZ International Documentary Film Festival alongside Cho Jin-wo ...

as Soo-kyung *

Park Soo-young Park Soo-young is a South Korean actor. He is known for his roles in dramas such as ''My Beautiful Bride'' (2015), '' Listen to Love'' (2016), ''Hi Bye, Mama!'' (2020) and ''Record Of Youth ''Record of Youth'' () is a South Korean television ...

as Manager * Song Ji-in as Ye-rin * Hwang Jae-won as Min-soo * Kim Soo-an as Min-young *

Lee Seon-hee Lee Seon-hee is a South Korean actress. She is known for her roles in dramas such as '' When the Weather Is Fine'', ''When the Camellia Blooms'', ''100 Days My Prince'' and ''Do Do Sol Sol La La Sol''. She also appeared in movies '' Casa Amor: ...

as Cashier * Kim Hyun as Cashier *

Kim Hee-won Kim Hee-won (born January 10, 1971) is a South Korean actor. Since 2007, he has played supporting roles in films and television series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which ...

as Convenience store boss ( cameo) *

Gil Hae-yeon Gil Hae-yeon ( ko, 길해연) is a South Korean actress. She is best known to North American audiences for her performance in the film '' In Her Place'', for which she garnered a Canadian Screen Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress at th ...

as Real customer (cameo)

Background

The film is largely inspired by a 2007 incident in which

Homever Homeplus () is a South Korea, 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, Shinsegae Group's e-mart chain. ...

, a supermarket chain owned by

E-Land Group E·Land Group (hangul:이랜드그룹) is a South Korean conglomerate headquartered in Changjeon-dong Mapo-gu Seoul, South Korea. E-Land Group takes part in retail malls, restaurants, theme parks, hotels and construction businesses as well as its ...

, 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 Hongik University (, colloquially ''Hongdae'') is a private university in Seoul, South Korea. Founded by an activist in 1946, the university is located in Mapo-gu district of central Seoul, South Korea with a second campus(branch campus) in S ...

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