Travel as alibi, revenge as mission: Four women head to Gyeongju

"We kidnapped the killer."

Mother Oksil (Lee Jung-eun) and her three daughters — Jangju (Gong Hyo-jin), Yeongju (Park So-dam) and Dongju (Lee Yeon) — set off for Gyeongju to mark the birthday of Gyeongju, the youngest daughter who never came home from a school trip eight years ago. Dressed in matching family T-shirts, the four pile into a van for what looks like a cheerful outing — though, as ever, it quickly dissolves into bickering and chaos.

Riding along in that van, however, is one more passenger: the man who took away the daughter and sister they loved so dearly.

Opening Aug. 26, "Gyeongju Giyaeng" follows four women who, after eight years of waiting, stage a revenge mission disguised as a family trip. The warm, picture-perfect road trip is nothing but a carefully constructed alibi. Desperate to escape the suffocating grief of loss, the four have set out with a single purpose: revenge — for the family they lost.

Meticulous yet somehow bumbling, the trip refuses to go according to plan — and along the way, each of the four women is forced to confront wounds long buried. Blending the tension of a thriller, the wit of black comedy and the emotional sweep of a road drama, "Gyeongju Giyaeng" sheds the conventions of the standard revenge film and delivers something new: a family revenge story all its own.

Director Kim Mi-jo, speaking at Monday's press presentation at Lotte Cinema Konkuk University in Gwangjin-gu, Seoul, said she was drawn to Gyeongju's dual character after visiting the city with her family. "Gyeongju is a tourist destination associated with school trips, but at night or in the rain it takes on something eerie and desolate," she said. "I thought that duality could cinematically capture the irony of a family trip that is also a murder journey."

"Gyeongju Giyaeng" is Kim's first commercial film. She announced herself as one of Korean cinema's rising talents when her debut feature "Galmegi" (2021) won the Grand Prize at the Jeonju International Film Festival. Kim acknowledged the long road to release but kept her tone light. "It did take a long time, but there are plenty of people who wait even longer," she said. "I see it as good fortune — I've been given the chance to share the story I dreamed of with a much wider audience."

The film also draws attention for bringing together some of South Korea's most acclaimed actresses: Lee Jung-eun, Gong Hyo-jin, Park So-dam and Lee Yeon. Each has built a distinct body of work, and how they spark off one another is one of the film's chief attractions. Kim described the cast as performers who have "not just mastered acting in Korea but crumpled it, torn it apart — there was no reason not to work with them."

Lee Jung-eun plays Oksil, a mother of daughters who runs a small neighborhood alterations shop called "Ok Fashion" and has spent eight years living only for the chance to avenge her youngest. Her portrayal layers loss, rage, grief and guilt into a dense, complex portrait of a mother undone by tragedy. Kim worked as a script supervisor on "Homage" (2022) and offered Lee the role of Oksil while the two were on that set. It then took roughly two years to assemble the daughters.

Lee said the wait felt right. "Oksil is a seamstress who stitches names one thread at a time. I thought waiting for the right actors required that same patience," she said. "All the actors I had originally hoped to work with ended up being cast, and I remember how overjoyed the director and I were. I feel a deep warmth knowing this film is finally reaching audiences."

She then described her character as "a mother frozen in the memory of the day her youngest daughter Gyeongju died, eight years ago," and drew a laugh from the room by adding that her character's disheveled hair and appearance had prompted many people to say she resembled musician Lee Sang-soon or sunbae actor Seong Ji-ru.

Gong Hyo-jin plays Jangju, the eldest daughter who takes after her mother most and understands better than anyone what it means to lose a child — which is why she joins the plan without hesitation. Scheduling conflicts had forced Gong to turn down the initial offer, but when the invitation came again roughly six months later, she did not let it pass. "When I read the script, the mother's role was the one I coveted most," she said. "I wanted to be there to support Lee Jung-eun."

Gong described Jangju as "the mother's right hand and command center — a daughter who worries about her mother and tries to help her do everything she wants to do." She added that Jangju, as the only one of the daughters with her own family, "understands most acutely, in the most dramatic way, what it means to have a family fall apart."

Park So-dam takes on the role of Yeongju, the second daughter — a law school graduate and the family's strategic brain, whose sharp mind draws up the blueprint for the revenge plan. Yeongju had intended to hand over the plan and step back, but finds herself managing every detail with painstaking precision to keep things from going off the rails, even as circumstances veer beyond her comfort zone.

Park said the sibling dynamics resonated with her personally. "I'm one of three siblings myself, and I notice a different side of me comes out depending on whether I'm dealing with the eldest or the youngest. I found those relationships between the three daughters really fun to read," she said. She added that she had long wanted to share the screen with Lee Jung-eun — her co-star from "Parasite" — this time as mother and daughter, and was glad the opportunity arrived.

Lee Yeon plays Dongju, the youngest daughter — a woman of action whose body moves before her mind catches up. Lee, who recently gained wider public recognition through the MBC drama series "Daegun Buin," portrays a former professional wrestler who brings a range of physical action to the film. Her instinct to act first is, at its core, one of the ways she knows how to earn her mother's love.

"She's the third daughter but feels like the third son," Lee said of her character. "She's so straightforward there isn't much to explain. Think of her as someone who spends one second thinking and ten seconds doing."

Into this mix steps the so-called "special guest" — the man responsible for stopping the family's clock eight years ago. With him in the picture, the film weaves the story of an ordinary family's pursuit of private justice together with the layered, complicated emotions only a mother-daughter bond can hold, rendering it all with both heat and warmth. Kim drew on her own experience growing up as the youngest of four sisters, projecting onto the film what she saw and felt living alongside her family.

"I wanted to portray a family I know intimately," Kim said. "I tend to start stories from within myself, and I felt the story of these mothers and daughters was the one closest to who I am."

She said the film is ultimately about endurance and love. "I wanted to tell the story of how people survive pain and loss — the story of those who keep going to the end," she said. "At its core, 'Gyeongju Giyaeng' is a story about a fierce kind of love, and I believe it can reach anyone who has someone they love."

The road to release has been long and difficult, and the cast and crew are keenly aware of what is at stake. When asked about her box-office hopes, Kim joked: "My father offered his New Year's blessing by wishing us 70 million admissions." The director and cast closed by asking audiences for their genuine interest and support.

Gong said the film is "full of the fantasies people have imagined while watching the news" and promised "an ending you won't see coming." Park urged audiences to come out: "We filmed in the blazing heat of summer, and now we get to meet audiences in the summer again — please give us lots of support."

Kim reflected on what the journey has meant to her. "The hardest moment as a director is being unable to share what you've made — just working alone in a small room," she said. "I'm so glad to have passed through that long stretch of time and to finally be introducing this film to audiences. We made it with 1,000 percent sincerity, and I hope you'll give it all your love."