Water Lilies (2026)

Two small-town dreamers flee their rural pasts for the neon chaos of Seoul, each clutching a fragile vision of tomorrow. Hyo-won, burning to be an actress, throws herself into the tutelage of Su-yeon—a seasoned leading lady who insists that true performance means absorbing another person’s suffering until it becomes your own. Meanwhile, Eun-seo, having dropped out of school, takes a grimy kitchen job to keep Hyo-won’s costly lessons afloat. But as Su-yeon pushes Hyo-won to embody pain, Hyo-won fails to see the very real pain in Eun-seo—and Eun-seo, in turn, cannot see hers. What follows is a raw, aching standoff between ambition and empathy, where the hardest role to play is simply understanding the person beside you. In this city of loud dreams and quiet wounds, every answer only spawns a harder question.