Korean director Lee Ran-hee brought her Busan International Film Festival award-winning film The Final Semester to HKAFF!

When sharing her creative inspiration, she shared that many vocation graduates go straight to intern at factories, with several fatal industrial accidents happening. She believes that even if the kids do not have flying academic results, do not come from a privileged background, deserve an equal working environment. She mentioned that Korean society believes that it is a must to finish tertiary education, these young adults are therefore often looked down upon. The labour and education policy are also mostly designed for university graduates, meaning these young workers rarely get to receive the treatment they should be entitled to.

On top of meticulously portraying the bewilderment shared by young adults as they enter workforce, the film also depicts the situation of migrant workers. In Korea, many filthy or labour intensive work are handled by foreign labour. Therefore foreigners are often deemed as workers of lower class. However, the director believes that they all live in Korea, is the neighbour of one and other. Therefore, she arranged a foreign worker to comfort the female protagonist after the funeral. Erasing the differences in facial color, all audience could see is an adult offering solace to a suffering young girl.

The film avoids excessive melodrama and cynicism. For the director, whether the character is melding metal or working on other duties, as long as he is happy with it, it is all that matters. "Pain never comes from labour itself, but the working environment that one is situated in".