A film about a 65-year-old prostitute who unofficially adopts a young boy to raise with her misfit neighbours, The Bacchus Lady (E J-yong, 2016) is a bittersweet drama that celebrates the ordinary in extraordinary circumstances.

Veteran actress Youn Yuh-jung is mesmerising as So-young, an escort working exclusively with elderly clients and using her profits to put her son through university in America. When her path collides with Min-ho (Choi Hyun-jun), whose parents are in the violent throes of a paternity battle, she takes him under her wing and bossily enrols the help of her neighbours to help care for him while she works.

As Min-ho adjusts to his colourful new home life, So-young’s relationships with her clients move into risky new territory, forcing her to make difficult moral choices while confronting her own painful past. The third collaboration between E J-yong and Youn Yuh-jung, The Bacchus Lady is a strong-hearted film about inner strength and the many ways of coping.