''Bleak Night'' (; lit. "The Lookout") is a 2010

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

n coming-of-age

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

written and directed by

Yoon Sung-hyun Yoon Sung-hyun (; born August 3, 1982) is a South Korean film director and screenwriter. Yoon's directorial debut, a graduation project, '' Bleak Night'' received rave reviews and won several Best New Director awards at the 48th Grand Bell Awar ...

. The film is about a father's search for answers following his son's death, and the shifting dynamics at play among three high-school friends. A Korean Academy of Film Arts graduation project by Yoon Sung-hyun, it received rave reviews and won several Best New Actor awards for

Lee Je-hoon Lee Je-hoon (; born July 4, 1984) is a South Korean actor. Having found success in both film and television, Lee first gained recognition for his roles in the films '' Bleak Night'' (2011) and '' The Front Line'' (2011), receiving numerous awar ...

, as well as Best New Director for Yoon at the

Grand Bell Awards The Grand Bell Awards (), also known as the Daejong Film Awards, is an awards ceremony presented annually by The Motion Pictures Association of Korea for excellence in film in South Korea. The Grand Bell Awards retains prestige as the oldest co ...

and

Busan Film Critics Awards Established in 2000, the Busan Film Critics Awards is run by the Busan Film Critics Association (BCFA), a small but independent-minded group of critics based in Busan, South Korea. Each year they announce their choices shortly before the opening of ...

Plot

Still mystified by his son's death, the father (

Jo Sung-ha Jo Sung-ha (; born August 8, 1966) is a South Korean actor. He is best known for his supporting roles in '' The Yellow Sea'' (2010), '' Helpless'' (2012), and ''Korean Peninsula'' (2012) and ''The K2 ''The K2'' () is a 2016 Korean drama, Sou ...

) of high school student Ki-tae (

) tries to track down his two best friends, classmates Hee-joon ( Park Jeong-min) and Dong-yoon (

Seo Jun-young Seo Jun-young (; April 24, 1987), born Kim Sang-gu (), is a South Korean actor. He is best known for his roles in award-winning indie '' Bleak Night'', period drama ''Deep Rooted Tree'', coming-of-age film In genre studies, a coming-of-age st ...

), to try to find an explanation. Through Ki-tae's classmate Jae-ho, the father meets Hee-joon, who says he cannot help as he moved schools "weeks before what happened to Ki-tae." Afterwards, Hee-joon berates Jae-ho for giving his phone number to Ki-tae's father but Jae-ho tells him that Ki-tae "went crazy" after he moved away. Hee-joon manages to trace Dong-yoon and urges him to contact Ki-tae's father and provide some answers. In parallel, flashbacks to the time gradually reveal what really happened, starting with Ki-tae's needling and bullying of Hee-joon and the latter's response.

Cast

as Ki-tae *

as Dong-yoon * Park Jeong-min as Baek Hee-joon ("Becky") *

as Ki-tae's father * Bae Jae-ki as Jae-ho *

Lee Cho-hee Lee Cho-hee (; born October 4, 1989) is a South Korean actress. She was an ambassador for the 2013 Sangsang Madang Cinema Music Film Festival. Career Lee Cho-hee had a career breakthrough with her role as Song Da-Hee on the KBS weekend drama ...

as Se-jung, girlfriend of Dong-yoon

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* * * * {{New Currents 2010 films 2010s high school films South Korean independent films South Korean coming-of-age drama films 2010s teen drama films South Korean high school films Films about school violence Films about bullying Films about suicide 2010s Korean-language films 2010s coming-of-age drama films 2010 directorial debut films 2010 drama films 2010s South Korean films