Night and Day

2008

A fugitive artist from Korea escapes to Paris in order to avoid a stiff prison sentence, only to find his love for the wife he left behind counterbalanced by his passion for the City of Lights. Sung-nam is a successful painter who was caught drunkenly smoking marijuana at a small gathering. Now threatened with an extended stay in jail, Sung-nam packs his bags and boards a plan bound for Paris. Once there, he settles down in a ramshackle hostel run by an older Korean man and located in the 14th Arrondissement. There's precious little for Sung-nam to do in Paris, so he spends most of his time aimlessly wandering along the Seine and through the city parks. Though he eventually happens upon his ex-girlfriend Min-sun, their current connection is tenuous at best and he can't help but think about the wife in Korea that he left behind. Later, after befriending a pretty art student named Hyun-ju and her flatmate Yu-jeong, Sung-nam becomes hopelessly smitten with the affectionate stranger. more..

Director: Hong Sang-Soo

Starring: Hwang Soo-jung, Park Eun-heui, Seo Min-Yeong, Kim Yeong-ho, Kim Yu-Jin

Reviews

  • Filmmakers from Jacques Rivette to Hou Hsiao-hsien have treated the City of Light like Aliceâ??s rabbit hole; writer-director Hong Sang-soo similarly embraces the fantasy, but goes one step further in this extraordinary character study by fully erasing the line that separates the actual from the fictional.

    Keith Uhlich - Time Out New York

    19 January 2013

  • Very Korean in its emotional content, while also preserving a quizzical distance that is quite French, picture is one of his lightest and most easily digestible metaphysical meals to date.

    Derek Elley - Variety

    19 January 2013

  • Some of it is hilarious, some sad, all filtered through Hong's inimitably wry take on the unbearable lightness of being . . . himself.

    - Village Voice

    19 January 2013

  • Regardless of critics' assertion of a change in style, Hong core group of intellectual admirers will still find pleasure in his cerebral film language, nuanced dialogue, and droll observations of a Korean abroad.

    - The Hollywood Reporter

    19 January 2013

  • Korean director Hong Sang-soo unleashes yet another emotionally stunted antihero in Night and Day, a rambling study of male arrested development.

    Jeannette Catsoulis - The New York Times

    19 January 2013

Awards

  • Best Screenplay

    Asia Pacific Screen Awards (2008)

     
  • Sang-soo Hong

    Berlin International Film Festival (2008)