It's not uncommon for a film to mean something slightly different to local, as opposed to international, viewers. But South Korean feature The Attorney, which opens in Hong Kong on Thursday, is a particularly unusual case.
On the surface, it is a moving and inspiring story about a lawyer defending a group of students who fall victim to police torture during the South Korean military dictatorship in the early 1980s. But like an iceberg, there is a massive, unspoken back-story.
But you don't have to be intimately familiar with the back-story of this dramatic work in order to enjoy or appreciate it. In early May at the Far East Film Festival in Udine, Italy, The Attorney received the second-highest score in audience voting among the 53 Asian features that screened there.
The plot is easy to relate to: lead actor Song Kang-ho plays a lawyer from humble origins who makes a fortune early on in his career by offering tax advice. But when the son of a woman he owes an emotional debt to is arrested and tortured by the authorities, he is forced to decide between maintaining his successful practice and standing up to the military dictatorship. This story depicts the birth of an individual's social conscience, and Song has been widely praised for the depth of feeling he brings to the role.