Birdcage Inn

Birdcage Inn follows Jin-a, a young woman who leaves Seoul for the coastal city of Pohang after the red-light district where she worked is demolished. She takes a room at a run-down seaside motel run by a family, and continues to sell her body there. Her presence creates tension with the household, particularly the college-age daughter, Hye-mi, who looks down on her even though the money Jin-a brings in helps support the family. Over time, the two women come to recognize how much they share.

The film is a drama directed by Kim Ki-duk, who also wrote the screenplay with Seo Jeong-min, and it was produced by Lee Seung-jae through Boogui Cinema. It was Kim's second film as director, arriving after Crocodile in 1996 and before The Isle in 2000. The cast is led by Lee Ji-eun as Jin-a and Lee Hae-eun as Hye-mi, with Ahn Jae-mo, Jeong Hyeong-gi, Son Min-seok and Lee In-ok in supporting roles. Running 101 minutes, it was released in Korea in late October 1998.

On IMDb the film holds a rating of 7 out of 10 from around 2,200 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 6.4 out of 10 from a much smaller base of roughly 70 votes. The wider and more sustained response on IMDb suggests the film has retained a modest reputation among viewers of Korean cinema from this period.