[3] Jina is the top employee at a call centre operating on behalf of a bank's credit card division and holds a tight workplace relationship with her boss – but despite her confident character, her mental health has been taking a toll, leading her to struggle interacting with others: besides her father's nonchalant response to her mother's passing, Jina has also recently had to formally renounce her inheritance, in a meeting presided by a lawyer who informed them that she changed her will just two years prior.
Spending most of her days withdrawn from society, Jina watches TV dramas in her apartment and mukbang videos during commutes or while eating out alone.
After inquiring as to why she is distressed, the woman scolds her for not noticing that a recent loud noise Jina heard some days prior was the sound of her neighbour getting crushed to death by a pile of adult magazines.
The following Monday Jina's boss, on orders from the human resources department of the company, asks her to train a new employee, who happens to be a young girl called Sujin.
Despite a higher pay, Jina accepts reluctantly, both her and the boss knowing she is not a perfect fit for the task and that her indisposition to normal company affairs is lost performance.
She ends her first morning's shift while falling asleep and does not seem to develop a mindset apt to the workplace, struggling to hold conversations on the phone or answering to clients in an improper way.
One of the regular callers to her job, who requests all of her monthly spendings to be read to her, raises her voice on the phone and threatens to file a report to the company, asking for Jina's name.
The website's critics consensus reads, "A meditation on isolation, Aloners poignantly explores grief, or the avoidance of it, and the technological walls we build around us.
"[5] Jonathan Romney of Screen International wrote "Aloners transcends its limitations through acute character observation, impressive directorial control and a strong performance from lead actress Gong Seung-yeon".