SPECIAL SCREENING: Bleak Night

"This is not a film that will be enjoyed by all".

Bleak Night was screened on the 18th June 2011 at the Edin­burgh Inter­na­tional Film Fes­ti­val.

Fol­low­ing its suc­cess at the 2010 Pusan Inter­na­tional Film Fes­ti­val, where it won the New Cur­rent Award, "Bleak Night" has impressed audi­ences world­wide with its gritty look at teenage rela­tion­ships and the poten­tial tragedy that can result when friend­ships fall apart. The debut film from Korean writer direc­tor Yoon Sung hyun is even more notable given that it serves as his grad­u­a­tion project from the Korean Acad­emy of Film Arts. Shot solely on a hand-held cam­era, its abil­ity to cap­ture the audience's atten­tion with its real­is­ti­cally grim por­trayal of teenage angst is noth­ing short of com­mend­able.

Set in a rel­a­tively hum­drum sub­urb in South Korea, where there is lit­tle for young­sters to do, a mid­dle aged father is des­per­ately try­ing to get in con­tact with the friends of his deceased son fol­low­ing his appar­ent sui­cide.

After much effort track­ing down the assorted teenagers, ele­ments of the plot are slot­ted into place as mem­o­ries are recounted in the form of flash­backs. Bit by bit the viewer is able to piece together a nar­ra­tive which paints a pic­ture of a trou­bled youth who was clearly dis­con­tented with life... Full review

Source : www.subtitledonline.c... ( English Korean )