Bleak Night


Bleak Night is a 2010 South Korean coming-of-age drama film written and directed by Yoon Sung-hyun. 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, as well as Best New Director for Yoon at the Grand Bell Awards and Busan [Film Critics Awards].

Plot

Still mystified by his son's death, the father of high school student Ki-tae tries to track down his two best friends, classmates Hee-joon and Dong-yoon, 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