Dark indie film Bleak Night earns raves
by javabeans
Bleak Night is a movie that was quietly released a week ago, which caught my attention for its thoughtful, haunting indie vibe.
Centered around a death at a high school, the film released a week ago on March 3, and has been building strong word of mouth among audiences for being “hair-raisingly, frighteningly realistic” and sensitive. Now in its second weekend, it is approaching the 10,000 admittance mark, and while that’s a pretty small number for a mainstream studio picture, it’s a strong showing for a small indie film, bolstered by fans who are returning for repeat showings.
It has even drawn glowing words from notable industry giants like Bong Joon-ho (director of The Host, Mother), who declared, “It’s an astonishingly well-made film.” Yang Ik-joon, director of the award-winning Breathless, said, “I’ve been waiting for this! For such an outstanding movie and director to appear…”
The trailer was enough to capture my interest, but now it definitely has my attention, that’s for sure.
The movie centers around three high school friends, one of whom dies when he falls from an apartment building. His father seeks to understand his son’s death, and searches out his friends, who have scattered in the aftermath.
What he finds is that all was not entirely well between the three friends; a misunderstanding stood between two of them and escalated into group violence, while the third had attempted to play peacemaker. Instead, he’d ended up hurting one of them, the one who dies. And so, the father comes upon a curious set of circumstances that he tries to make sense of: One friend is dead, one has left, and another has hidden. Nobody’s blameless, and it’s difficult to say who was the victim and who was the wrongdoer.
Like its title suggests, the truth lies in murky waters, and what is left at the end is the knowledge that the three friends weren’t able to look out for each other — “lookout” being the film’s Korean title.
In addition to the haunting plot, we have three up-and-coming actors who have attracted some notice for their performances. Playing Ki-tae, the dead boy, is Lee Je-hoon, who was notably in the queer coming-of-age film Just Friends?, and also the romantic comedy movie starring Gong Yoo and Im Soo-jung, Finding Kim Jong-wook. Playing his friend is Seo Joon-young, who was recently in the sageuk drama Gumiho: Tale of the Fox’s Child. The trio is rounded out by Park Jung-min, a relative rookie who starred in a 2008 short, Lovers. Playing the questioning father is Flames of Desire’s Jo Sung-ha.
Helming the project is Yoon Sung-hyun, a young director (he’s 29) who’s earned a number of awards and praise for his work. Bleak Night won the New Currents award at the Pusan International Film Festival in 2010, while his 2008 film Boys picked up a special jury prize at the Jeonju International Film Festival, as well as an audience award at the International College Peace Film Festival.
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Tags: Jo Sung-ha, Lee Je-hoon, Park Jung-min, Seo Joon-young
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1 Haru
March 12, 2011 at 8:33 PM
OMG i want to watch this movie now :O
IT looks AWESOME!
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2 ilikehim
March 12, 2011 at 8:34 PM
Is the last picture a boy or a girl?
Also, I am intrigued.
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:D
March 12, 2011 at 9:17 PM
that's a good question...
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River
March 12, 2011 at 11:01 PM
I find in Korean culture, everyone who's in their twenties are holy-crap-can-I-touch-you-gorgous, but completely genderless. Idols? I'm left with drool on my chin, but not completely sure if I was watching a girl or guy. The actors? Sunkwangan (?) Scandal. T.T
I'm dramatizing, of course. I'm sure there's... Some Way to find out.
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Jaeminuf
March 12, 2011 at 11:53 PM
The last one, I'm fairly certain, is a girl. I'd be pretty shocked if it were a boy.
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gingganggolli
March 13, 2011 at 5:35 PM
hahaha...so funny...that's get me wondering, but i'm sure its a girl...
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I think...
March 13, 2011 at 10:41 PM
She's a a girl. Well at least she looks like one.
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humdrum
October 1, 2011 at 4:09 AM
It's a girl. Se-jung, the girlfriend of Dong yoon :)
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3 hpn88
March 12, 2011 at 8:47 PM
I always put these movies on my list, but I can NEVER find subtitles :(
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mrskimchee
March 13, 2011 at 1:26 AM
go to myasiancinema, they usually have sub
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kitsou
July 29, 2014 at 8:29 AM
re-set your captions to be on in your Roku settings. :)
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4 jyiskool
March 12, 2011 at 9:00 PM
the trailer gave me chills.
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5 veritaserum
March 12, 2011 at 9:07 PM
looks promising. I just need to find TIME to watch all these. *sigh*
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6 kc
March 12, 2011 at 9:12 PM
mystic river, anyone? the premise reminds me of ths movie, the one with sean penn, whos acting on said film was to die for.
i hope i find one wt subs soon
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7 ivy_factiva
March 12, 2011 at 9:15 PM
the trailer looks awesome. feel like watching it, but chances of catching it seems quite slim since it's an indie
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ivy_factiva
March 12, 2011 at 9:24 PM
though the plot isn't exactly similar, it reminds me of a japanese drama i liked called Watashitachi no Kyoukashou, which actually centres on a step mom and a teacher trying to uncover the truth to the girl's death at the school.
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starry
March 13, 2011 at 3:46 AM
never watch the drama but this movie's plot reminds me of the jap movie "confession" starring matsu takako.
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anna hae
March 14, 2011 at 9:55 AM
and the confession is also getting rave reviews all around.
so I guess these kind of plot/themes does gives off intriguing aura to audiences, given that the director knows what to do.
and I'M SO GOING TO WATCH THIS.
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8 barbie
March 12, 2011 at 9:26 PM
thank you. it looks like my kind of film and i hope i could check it out soon, as well.
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9 Kender
March 12, 2011 at 9:39 PM
Wow, this sounds awesome, and I love the look of those stills. I can't wait until it leaks onto the internet. :3
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10 y
March 12, 2011 at 11:29 PM
friendship!
I heard from someone saying that friendship is transparent, I think it requires a lot of trust and love from both side equally.
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11 Carmie
March 12, 2011 at 11:32 PM
I wish I knew where to go see this in Seoul. >.< This looks really good.
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12 cheekbones
March 12, 2011 at 11:33 PM
Thanks, jb, for bringing this up to our attention. I'll be on the lookout. My kind of movies. :)
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13 DEE
March 12, 2011 at 11:36 PM
Ahh I was wondering why one of them looked so familiar. It's because he played in Lovers ^^ I want to watch this movie but I am too lazy. This is one of those thinking movies where you actually have to reflect on the movie after it's finished. Then, you have to watch it again because you were too overwhelmed by the message/tone to admire the cinematography. Too much work hehehe :) but I'll put it on my list of movies to be watched.
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14 polinonae
March 13, 2011 at 12:00 AM
wow!! That movie looks really good!!...i would love for foreign movies to play more in US theaters, i hate seen all this big budget movies whom are only trying to get money of 3D and unoriginal topics...uhhh i really hate theaters this days:S
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15 GrandmaFran
March 13, 2011 at 12:14 AM
awww i loved seo joon young ever since the devil and kimcheed radish cube. hope he gets more projects
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16 mommy
March 13, 2011 at 12:32 AM
i'm already hooked up by the trailer!! this movie just looks awesome!!
just want to add sth: MY PRAYERS GO TO ALL THE JAPANESE!!!! STAY STRONG JAPAN!!!
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17 fern
March 13, 2011 at 1:05 AM
Ok...... I'm sold. I wanna watch this movie!!!! But i doubt they'll release it in Malaysia : ( Is there anywhere else we can watch it?
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18 Sojuboy
March 13, 2011 at 3:37 AM
This thing reminds me of a famous Japanese novel. It seems to be borrowing from that.
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19 Dara
March 13, 2011 at 5:17 AM
Aww, really want to know what's going on between them. Nice.
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20 MzKyu
March 13, 2011 at 6:34 AM
ooooh seems good, want to watch it
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21 Alvina
March 13, 2011 at 8:25 AM
For some reason, the "feel" reminds me of this Thai horror film I saw a couple of years ago...
I will anticipate watching this, for sure.
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22 hitsugaya
March 13, 2011 at 10:08 AM
i want to watch this!
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23 pugz
March 13, 2011 at 11:47 AM
This does look pretty good. Hope Netflix will have it available (though it might take a while). They have a pretty good selection of foreign films on instant play.
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24 tina
March 14, 2011 at 5:06 AM
i've been wanting to watch this movie since i heard about it at the international film festival rotterdam , but never got a chance to watch it. it got nominated for a tiger award too if i remember correctly. i hope it comes out in the usa later!
honestly i mainly want to watch it for lee je-hoon. *is so shallow*
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25 Myxale
March 14, 2011 at 7:59 AM
Looks and sounds promising.
In time of too many mainstreams, and well made Indy is most welcome!!
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26 Chloe
November 12, 2011 at 10:18 PM
I watched this movie. It attracted me from the 1st sec to final sec. However, I wonder a little bit. Ki-Tae is wrong when he treats so bad with Hee-Jun. But I feel sympathy to Ki-Tae. I think he has a problem that he can't say. Actually, a misunderstanding between them so anyone plz explain it for me. I am not clear about this film
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27 futurestar
May 2, 2013 at 7:45 AM
as a big Korean film fan I try to suss out the better from from the so – so and watch that. not being a big teen angst film fan I did hop on this based on so the many excellent reviews. having the protagonist comprised over the dynamics of three life long school friends as they get closer to that graduation date, being in the throes of puberty, learning first hand hand how to deal with the challenge of emotional upheaval and the awkwardness that may ensue, the dynamics between our three principals continually shift as clarity and confusion trade leads in our unfolding story of current tragedy unveiling and flashback insight into the circumstances that might reveal or not, how Y landed on X and Z split the scene because he couldn’t take it anymore. the dynamics unravel as the father of “hot shit” tries to come to terms with loss in multiple inquiries into we get a special unfolding by youthful director in a mesmerizing tale told unusually. good stuff if you can hang. does require you pay attention as normal rewards are not welcome int his script or ever on his set. encouraging start of a possible great careers for a handful of terrific hopefuls.
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