Still Shining (2026): Cast, Story and Release Details

Prepared by Movies Dock Editorial

Still Shining is a South Korean drama about two young women whose dreams of music and freedom are disrupted by wartime tragedy, separation and unanswered questions. Decades later, their reunion reopens a painful past when one of them no longer remembers what happened between them.

Still Shining is a South Korean drama that moves between the 1940s and the later years of its central characters. The story follows Soon-ok and Jeong-eem, two women whose hopes for music and freedom are tested by tragedy, forced changes and years of separation.

Directed by Song Il-gon and written by Lee Hye-sook, the film centers on memory, guilt and the lasting effects of a turbulent period in Korean history. Its 1-hour-58-minute runtime gives the story room to connect the women’s youth with their unexpected reunion in old age.

Still Shining movie details

Story without spoilers

Set in the 1940s, Still Shining introduces Soon-ok and Jeong-eem as friends who dream of leaving home in pursuit of music and freedom. A sudden tragedy in their community changes the course of Soon-ok’s life and leads to an unexpected marriage.

Jeong-eem then disappears under mysterious circumstances, leaving Soon-ok with guilt and unresolved questions. Many years later, the two women meet again. Their reunion is complicated by the fact that elderly Jeong-eem has no memory of their shared past, creating the film’s central emotional and narrative tension.

What to expect

The film is identified as a drama and is set against a period shaped by the Japanese occupation of Korea and World War II. Its premise points to a story concerned with friendship, separation, memory, guilt and the consequences of choices made under difficult circumstances.

The narrative spans different stages of Soon-ok and Jeong-eem’s lives, with younger and older versions of both women represented in the cast. The supplied synopsis establishes a serious, character-focused story built around a long-awaited reunion rather than a straightforward chronological account.

Cast and creative team

Kim Hye-ja plays Grandmother Soon-ok, while Park Seo-kyung portrays Young Soon-ok. Cha Mi-kyung plays Grandmother Jeong-im, with Choi Ju-eun as Young Jeong-im. The cast also includes Moon Seong-hyun as Boy Doo-yeong, Cho Seong-ha as Village foreman Kwak, Lee Se-young as Ji-an, Jang Hyun-sung as Soon-ok’s father, Jung Hee-tae as Jeong-im’s father and Seo Young-hee as Jeong-im’s mother.

Song Il-gon directs Still Shining from a screenplay by Lee Hye-sook.

• Kim Hye-ja as Grandmother Soon-ok
• Park Seo-kyung as Young Soon-ok
• Cha Mi-kyung as Grandmother Jeong-im
• Choi Ju-eun as Young Jeong-im
• Moon Seong-hyun as Boy Doo-yeong
• Cho Seong-ha as Village foreman Kwak
• Lee Se-young as Ji-an
• Jang Hyun-sung as Soon-ok's father
• Jung Hee-tae as Jeong-im's father
• Seo Young-hee as Jeong-im's mother

Release and production context

Still Shining is a South Korean production from Page One Film, spoken in Korean. It has a listed runtime of 1 hour and 58 minutes and a release date of October 21, 2026. The film is classified as a drama and is marked as released in the supplied information.

Production companies: Page One Film

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With its wartime setting, dual-period structure and reunion shaped by lost memory, Still Shining frames a personal story within a difficult chapter of Korean history. The film’s central question is not only what happened between Soon-ok and Jeong-eem, but also how much of a shared past can survive when memory no longer connects the people who lived it.

Film data:
TMDB · IMDb