Private Project

KIM J.Y. Han – CJ & TIFF K-STORY FUND – 2025

Title: Afterglow

AKIRA (1988) meets OCEAN’S EIGHT (2018)

Genre: Cyberpunk, dystopian future, action thriller, heist

Logline:
Amidst a civil unrest in Neo-Seoul “Steel City,” two unlikely fashion designers race to counterfeit a rare bioenhanced suit, which allows the rich to live forever and abandons the poor for dead.

  • Kim J.Y. Han
    Director
  • Kim J.Y. Han
    Writer
  • Project Type:
    Feature
  • Genres:
    Sci-Fi, Cyberpunk, Action, Heist, Dystopian Thriller
  • Country of Origin:
    South Korea
  • Country of Filming:
    South Korea
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Kim J.Y. Han

Kim J.Y. Han (she/her/hers) is a South Korean writer-director that tells stories about the complexities of human nature through an intersectional, anthropological lens. She is currently making the festival circuit with her debut short film, CHAMPION, which has screened at Oscar-qualifying and global festivals including Hawai’i IFF, Tokyo Children’s IFF, Busan Kids and Youth IFF, and more. Han is developing multiple feature and TV projects while preparing to shoot her next short, MOTTAINAI.

Han worked in Hollywood for eight years, where she was most recently a TV development executive at NBCUniversal International Studios, specializing in packaging global-facing shows from Asia and Africa. Han also participated in NALIP Latino Lens Incubator as a producer and Film Independent Project Involve as a creative executive fellow, producing three short films that won the top jury awards at festivals like Berlinale and SXSW. In 2019, Colour Entertainment selected her in their 1st Annual Next Up List, as one of the most hardworking individuals to watch in entertainment.

Raised in Seoul and San Francisco, Han graduated from the University of Chicago with a dual degree in International Studies and Cinema Studies. Beyond screenwriting, Han likes to bake, paint, and dabble in her first science fiction novel.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

A cyberpunk dystopian thriller, AFTERGLOW reflects on my anxieties about the future. It’s an unapologetic commentary on our modern world that sacrifices humanity for the sake of capitalism. This film mirrors the fractures in our society: the way corporations commodify lives, the way technology promises salvation but often delivers control, and the way beauty and art can contribute to hyper-consumerism while being a tool for resistance. My goal as a filmmaker is to be the voice of that resistance and fight for a future where everyone can live free– not just survive.

AFTERGLOW pulsates with bold colors and an emphasis on costume design. In an atmosphere so toxic that one needs to wear full-body suits to survive, fashion becomes the centerpiece. Fashion isn’t just an aesthetic—it’s armor, power, and identity. The rich wear their privilege in expensive, outlandish, hand-made designer suits, while the poor scrape by in the shadows of the city in worn-out, mass-produced suits.

This visually enthralling film propels forward with defiant characters on motorbikes, and the active camera movements capture the charged energy of their futuristic world. Close-ups and extreme angles heighten the intensity of action sequences, and sweeping shots portray a deeply textured world. The film will keep the audience at the edge of their seats with its constant collision of high-tech and decay, neon and shadow, and hope and despair.

Jade, a rising fashion designer from the fringes of society, is our way into the story. The film kicks off running when she joins hands with an unlikely partner to counterfeit the rare bio-enhanced suit, which provides immortality to the one percenters while literally consuming the blood of the poor. In this futuristic yet plausible world, Jade proudly embodies the voice of the disenfranchised that refuses to be exploited and controlled.