New Normal is a 2019 South Korean drama film directed by Jeong Beom-sik, welds the social issue of today; disconnection and desolation in the world of technology possessed in every individual. This film takes place in the city of Seoul and tells several stories that revolve on lonely, repressed, unsatisfied but craving for love characters. As the film presents, there is a news anchor suffering from overwork stress and a delivery man who fails to connect himself with anyone for weeks- such is life in the 21st century when even connectedness through technology means being lonelier than ever.
Something unusual about New Normal are the events during which the story takes place – the events of acute exacerbation of the global pandemic COVID-19. The draft explores this ‘new normal’ where the ‘nature’ of interaction has changed and society has been forced to cope with many forms of skylight illness. Unlike other features of these types of films, there is tension, fear, and an overall dark tone that creates an unsettling vibe throughout the film but not in the way that one would expect it.
The New Normal fascinates me in the way that it captures the social mood in the post pandemic era – feelings of disconnection and emotional estrangement many of us are familiar with.The mundane depiction of everyday activities emphasizes the chilling realisation that loneliness has become normalized. It is an engaging movie, in the sense that, once you are finished with it, it has a lot of discussion points in relation to the images portrayed and what the future holds in the age of the internet.
