There was a nation-wide construction project in Cambodia in 1999. As a cable line was constructed from the border of Thailand to Vietnam through Cambodia, Cambodia entered the Information Age of the 21st century. One man lectures two laborers sitting alongside the construction field on the Information Highway: ＂Do you know about the eye of the magic and ear of the magic? You can watch CNN news from the US and send the picture to your parents in California while just sitting here.＂ And one of the workers interrupts: ＂We live where there is no electricity.＂ What does it mean to the underprivileged Cambodian who cannot prepare a meal? Director Rithy Panh points his camera at the reality of the lower class Cambodian who struggles to survive amidst social injustice and contradictions: wars, high illiteracy rate, imbalance of capitalist distribution, superstitions, and severe poverty. The cable line construction offers them an instant chance of employment, but the workers couldn′t get paid. However, the returned worker names the baby as ‘hope’. Their will to survive and believe that the future goes on even under the harsh reality, is beautiful. (Kang So-Won)