Byun Sung-hyun transforms a 1970 hijacking into a razor sharp satire with Good News. Sul Kyung-gu commands the screen as a crisis leader trying to steady a nation, while Hong Kyung and Ryu Seung-beom deliver kinetic energy as part of the task force.
From the opening moments, Byun orchestrates panic, political spin, and media frenzy with precision, drawing dark comedy from the absurdity of bureaucracy in collapse. The film moves at breakneck speed, yet never loses its sense of irony, showing how optics matter as much as lives in the machinery of power.
Performances balance the absurd and the sincere, with Sul’s gravitas grounding the chaos. Byun’s staging thrives on contrasts, moments of frantic activity followed by pauses where dread seeps in. Good News works as both gripping thriller and biting satire, leaving the audience shaken and amused in equal measure. It’s cinema that entertains even as it skewers the systems meant to protect us.
Good News is playing at TIFF ’25. For more information, click here.
