Circleline

Sang-woo, a forty-something year old man who recently lost his job, does not let his wife know about the layoff. He kills time by riding on a subway all day long. One day, he bumps into a homeless woman holding a baby begging for money. Reminded of his own baby to be arriving soon, he starts to worry. He witnesses the woman begging passing on the baby to another homeless as a prop. He gets into a fight with her but only gets embarrassed.

E.D.571

In the year of 2030, a 39-year-old single woman, KIM In-ah. One day, a strange girl is waiting in front of her house. The girl demands In-ah to be a legal guardian, claiming that she is her biological mother. In-ah remembers selling her eggs to pay off her student loans in the past. The girl blackmails In-ah that she will post everything on the web, but In-ah decides to strike back.

In Good Company

Chul-woo, an editor of company newspaper is ordered to lay off a woman colleague who is pregnant. She gets outraged with unfair dismissal and declares a strike with other co-workers. With the due date of newspaper coming up, Chul-woo tries to convince people on strike to stop. Meanwhile, Chul-woo\'s pregnant wife goes into labor while doing community service at a kindergarten. He throws away his work and runs to the hospital.

Star Shaped Stain

1 year after her daughter\'s death in kindergarten summer camp, a woman joins a memorial service with other parents who lost their kids. Memories shut away after the accident are brought back to life, and she is led to believe that her daughter is \"missing\" by one man\'s nonsense. After a long search, she finds a videotape that contains \"star-shaped stain\" that only her daughter and she remember.

Program Note
Modern Family is an omnibus film project proposed by Korea\'s Ministry of Health and Welfare that deals with the low birth rate issue. For this film, participating directors make use of their diverse characteristics and ideologies by focusing on a more fundamental question: Why is giving birth and raising children so difficult in Korea? They answered this question by delving into the family-centered ideology emphasized by society and the confusion and suffering that nuclear families face regarding that ideology.
Director SHIN Su-won’s Circleline combines the sense of helplessness felt by the unemployed breadwinner of the house and the fear of giving birth, and handles the weight of the endlessly increasing responsibility through images that continue in a spiraling rotation. Based on a true story, Director HONG Ji-young’s Star Shaped Stain uses horror film elements to express the pain and trauma of raising children in Korea, where social facilities for childcare are inadequate. Director LEE Soo-youn, who has provocatively dismantled maternal instincts and motherliness starting with her previous film The Uninvited, takes a look at complicated issues related to maternal instincts and the trading of human eggs in E.D.571. Last but not least, In Good Company by Director KIM Sung-ho utilizes a documentary format to focus on women giving birth, their working conditions, and the worrisome reality of a working mom\'s life. Modern Family is a portrait of Korean families faced with difficulties on all sides. [HONG So-in]