In a sleepy fishing village island located in Philippines, a growing fear exists beneath the beautiful scenery. Divina, a sixteen-year-old girl, doesn’t complete a death report for her missing father. There is no body but he’s been gone for almost three months. Her ex-boyfriend and her younger sister start seeing each other, and her younger brother is still a troublesome little boy. The villagers are poor but kind, and try to help her, but the sea that never returns what it takes doesn’t answer. Until one day thousands of apples suddenly drift to the shore. The director Joseph Israel Laban got a master’s degree in documentary filmmaking in the United States, and has won various awards as a director and/or writer. Sea Serpent was supported by the ACF Post-Production Fund of the Busan International Film Festival, and won the Best Director Award at Cinemalaya Film Festival. It reveals the director’s sharp perspective that the place a monster is born is not in nature, but in the human world. (PARK Sungho)