COUNTERATTACK AT THIRTY

Counterattack at Thirty depicts a striking but cheerful revolution perpetrated by little "Che Guevaras" that were born in 1988 and makes a critique about the injustice and hypocrisy of Korean society.

Kim Jihye is a thirty year-old intern at an academy which is affiliated with a Korean conglomerate. She lives an ordinary but stormy day-to-day life. One day, Gyu-ok, born in 1988 like Jihye, appears in front of her, animated by some sort of odd energy. Jihye and Gyu-ok attend a ukulele class with Muin, an unknown scenario writer, and Nameun, who has a personal internet show about eating meals. They rage at the harsh reality, where 99% of the people who make up society are unfairly cajoled by the remaining 1%. They start plotting to overthrow the parts of society, having some fun just like they're playing a game. As Gyu-ok's "prank letter" scheme to punish Kim, the Department Head, achieves unexpected results, the four are stimulated. They start to gather after ukulele class and conspire on new jobs. Every week, they carry out a naughty counterattack, something lighter than a misdemeanor, yet too ambiguous to call it defamation. While they keep it up unnoticed, more and more eyewitness accounts are uploaded to SNS. Soon, there are people following their "counterattacks." The 30-year olds relish the popularity, taking pleasures in resisting the unilateral, exploitative and demeaning authoritarianism. One day, Kim, the Department Head, resigns suddenly and Jihye is offered a regular job. Relations with Gyu-ok, Muin and Nameun also turn into a new phase as small incidents and conflicts continue...

Will people born in 1988, now at the end of their youth, and individuals who groan under the uncontrollable and exploitative structure of society just give up and be absorbed into the system devised by the older generation, or will they become the driving force for a new change?

Sohn Won-pyung (b.1979) earned BA in social studies and philosophy at Sogang University and film directing at Korean Academy of Film Arts. She won the Film Review Award of the 6th Cine21 in 2001. Her movie script "I believe in the moment" won the Science Fantasy Writers' Award in 2006. She also wrote and directed a number of short films including Oooh You Make Me Sick (2005), and A Two-way Monologue (2007).

She made her literary debut in 2017 when her first full-length novel Almond won the Changbi Prize for Young Adult Fiction, immediately garnering rave reactions from the readers. A new generation of a storyteller, she wrote her next full-length novel, Born in 1988 which won Jeju 4.3 Peace Literary Award. She is active in both movie and literary scenes as a film director, screenwriter, and novelist.