Second-generation migrant worker, Soo is released after receiving probation and community service sentence for his use of violence. Along with his friend Pil-sung, he ends up working as brokers for illegal migrant workers. While fulfilling his community service duty, he meets surfers. Soo falls in love with surfing as the surfers Ddong-ggo and Hae-na teach him how to surf.

WAVE is the second feature film directed by Choi Changhwan, who won the Upcoming Project Prize for Back from the Beat in Korean Competition of the Jeonju IFF last year. Director Choi shows a slightly different approach from his previous work. While describing the daily life of a foreign job broker named Soo working in Jeju Island which has become the front line in the refugee issue in Korea, the film focuses on the playful desire that the protagonist indulges in amid exploitation and criminal deviation. While Choi's debut film captures the life of a desperate young man in an exploitative labor environment, this film highlights the protagonist enjoying surfing while looking at the overdetermined exploitative labor environment in the guise of the refugee issue. [KIM Youngjin]