Bleak Night

Trailer: 

Review

This movie has a real feeling to it. It’s like a slice-of-life with intrigue. The actors feel real and it has a kind of gritty atmosphere.

For the first 15-20 minutes, it was hard to get a feel for what the story actually was about. It starts unfolding about a half hour in, but I’m not sure I would’ve really known what was going on if I hadn’t read the summary first. I would’ve known by the end, but I think it’s better to know right away.

The movie alternates between the present and the past, and sometimes has a bit of a dream-like look. For instance, something happens to the girlfriend of one of the guys, but you don’t get enough of a look to tell exactly what it was exactly. You can easily speculate, but there’s not a clear-cut answer. It’s like that for a couple scenes. However, it doesn’t get in the way of the enjoyment of the film.

Lee Je-Hoon, (playing the kid that committed suicide), is a really good actor. His acting is so real; I could really see the pain in his eyes. I think that’s the highlight of whole movie. If someone less professional had the role, I don’t think it would’ve been as interesting.

This story really shows how heartache and insecurity can create violent actions. Even though one of the friends was a bully a lot of the time, you could feel his pain when his friends were drifting away from him. He was so afraid of losing the only people close to him, that he got too controlling and ended up driving them away. While, there’s no way we can blame the friends for leaving him, it was still heartbreaking to watch.

In the end, the friends, of course, blame themselves. However, I think the father is more to blame. If he had been there for him, the kid would’ve learned how to control himself better, he wouldn’t have had those negative feelings, and he never would’ve acted out as a bully. It would’ve been nice to see closure with the father, but then, the story wasn’t about him; it was about the friends.

Check out this movie if you want to see some great acting and a sad story about youth friendships gone wrong.