1. Sleepless Night
Shuffling into a movie theater at 9am at the height of summer, I hardly expected the 65-minute no-budget Korean indie Sleepless Night to become my favorite film of the year but that's where things stand. Jang Kun-jae's film feels real in a way that would be impossible to fabricate: it pulsates with life. Outwardly simple and yet richly evocative, it achieves a balance of realism and poetry that touched me deeply, and continues to affect me long after I first saw it. Sporting a pair of sublimely naturalistic performances, Sleepless Night is about normal people and ordinary circumstances, yet it is electrifying. I am not married and children are probably a long way off but I can appreciate where these characters are coming from. I like them, I understand them, I feel like one of them, and, ultimately, I want the same thing they do: to be happy.
Reviews and features on Korean film appear regularly on Modern Korean Cinema. For film news, external reviews, and box office analysis, take a look at the Korean Box Office Update, Korean Cinema News and the Weekly Korean Reviews, which appear weekly on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings (Korean Standard Time).
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