General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20264 min read

The Net (그물) (2016 film)

The Net (그물) is a 2016 South Korean drama film directed by Kim Ki-duk about a North Korean fisherman whose boat is caught in a fishing net and drifts across the maritime border into South Korea, after which he is treated as a suspect by both sides while trying to return to his family.¹^•² It opened in South Korea on October 6, 2016, runs 113 minutes, and was rated for viewers aged 15 and over.¹

Key fact	Detail
Korean title / English title	그물 / The Net¹
Director and production	Directed by Kim Ki-duk; produced by Kim Ki-duk Film; distributed by NEW²^•³
Release	October 6, 2016 (South Korea); drama, 113 minutes, 15-and-over rating¹
Lead role	Ryu Seung-beom as Cheol-woo (남철우), a North Korean fisherman²^•³
Supporting cast	Lee Won-geun, Kim Young-min, and Choi Gwi-hwa; Sung Hyun-ah in a brief appearance⁴^•⁵
Place in Kim Ki-duk's career	His 22nd film⁶

Spoilers

Plot and subject

The film follows Cheol-woo, a North Korean fisherman played by Ryu Seung-beom, whose boat becomes entangled in a net and drifts, alone, across the boundary between North and South.² Once he is picked up by the South, he is taken to a defector investigation office, and although he eventually clears himself of espionage suspicions and returns to the North, he is no longer treated there as the fisherman he was; both sides regard him with suspicion.³^•⁶ The story covers the grueling week he endures in trying to get back to his family.²

Kim Ki-duk described the title as a metaphor for ideology: in an interview around the release he framed the net as the system that traps people on both sides of the division.⁷ At the press screening he said the film was made so that South and North would look at themselves, adding that after 66 years of living with division he hoped relations could improve, and that the film's sad ending was one he hoped reality would contradict.²^•³

Production and casting

Kim Ki-duk had written the screenplay some time before production. He said the casting of Ryu Seung-beom, recommended by director Ryoo Seung-wan after the two met by chance at the Busan International Film Festival, played an important role in starting the project; preparation began in November of the previous year.² It was the first time Ryu had worked with Kim.²

The supporting cast included Lee Won-geun, Kim Young-min, and Choi Gwi-hwa, who appeared alongside the director at the press screening held on September 28, 2016, at Lotte Cinema's Konkuk University entrance branch in Seoul.²^•⁴ Kim Young-min, who plays an investigator, said Ryu Seung-beom's immersion in the role was enormous on set, and Lee Won-geun noted how quickly the scenes were shot.⁴

Sung Hyun-ah's appearance. Kim Ki-duk offered the actress, who had stepped away from acting after a personal scandal, a small part. He said she initially declined for fear of causing trouble for the film, and that he sought the agreement of Ryu Seung-beom and the head of the distributor before casting her; she filmed for only an hour or two on set.⁵

Reception and later showings

At release the film drew attention for its experimental character rather than box-office strength; the Cinematheque entry notes that it received particular recognition at the 19th Busan International Film Festival and that, given later developments on the Korean peninsula, it has taken on a more pointed, almost prophetic character.¹ A Russian-language Korean-community paper covering the Sakhalin International Film Festival, where the film screened on two consecutive days with the first screening at the Chekhov Center sold out, described it as the sad story of an ordinary fisherman on a divided peninsula, and quoted the director's framing: survival, longing for family, and desire cross ideology, so what net can wall off a human being's original life?⁶

The film was Kim Ki-duk's 22nd feature. The director, who by one account made roughly one film a year on a production schedule of about two months, died in December 2020 at age 60 in a Latvian hospital after COVID-19 worsened; he was the only Korean director to have won major prizes at Cannes, Venice, and Berlin.⁶^•⁸

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026