Last night I watched Park Chan-wook’s The Handmaiden (2016), a film packed with the Director’s narrative style. My thirst (pun intended) for Korean storytelling still lingered, remembering I’d seen his short film crop up on MUBI, I swiftly hit play. Park Chan-wook’s short film, titled Judgement (1999), was based on the 1995 collapse of the Sampoong Department store, a catastrophe that saw many people swoop in to claim Government pay-outs. The film was perfectly named and explored the theme of judgment from almost every angle imaginable. The Morgue worker’s character was so fully developed within the 26-minute run time, proving the director does not need a 2-hour-plus in order to tell a story. Even characters who had only been referred to through memories seemed to roam the physical space of the morgue’s back room, a further implication of the brilliant script. As the cameramen are shoved out of the room, Chan-wook shows us the behind-the-scenes results of the Sampoong Department store, where family secrets are no longer buried. Judgement is more than worth your time and goes to show exactly how much the short film medium can achieve.

Luckily for you, it’s available to watch on YouTube, so if you’ve got a spare 30 minutes or need some thought-provoking material, this should be on your list.