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2012｜65 MIN | Drama

DIRECTOR JANG Kun-jae

CAST KIM Su-hyun, KIM Joo-ryoung, JEONG Dae-yong

RELEASE DATE May 30, 2013

CONTACT Indiestory

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Email : indiestory@indiestory.com

Three years after turning heads with his impressive debut feature Eighteen (2010), which premiered at the Busan International Film Festival and went on to win the Dragons and Tigers Award from the Vancouver International Film Festival, director JANG Kun-jae returned with the most unlikely of follow-ups. Over just 65 minutes, Sleepless Night (2013) was originally conceived as a mid-length work, but this quiet movie about married life and the everyday search for happiness cemented JANG’s status as a leading light of independent Korean cinema.

A newly married couple experiences the quiet joys and tribulations of their lives in Seoul, where they live in a modest but new apartment of a typical suburban residential complex. Hyun-soo has trouble with his superior at the factory where he works, while Joo-hee spends her days instructing yoga students. Two years after their wedding, the couple reaches a crossroads, as they decide whether they are ready or even financially able to start their own family.

Sporting a pair of understated yet powerful performances from KIM Su-hyun (Guardian, 2014) and KIM Joo-ryoung (I'm in Trouble!, 2009), Sleepless Night avoids the social extremes that mark most low-budget works in Korea as it chooses instead to explore modern life in an immensely relatable fashion through real-life characters experiencing typical problems. Without the high drama present in its peers, JANG’s film succeeds thanks to its quiet observation and its rooted natural construction, influenced by the experience of the director and his producer and real-life wife KIM Woo-ri. JANG and his cast, along with his small crew, shared quarters throughout the production of the film, which helped the film achieve its intimate feel.

The recipient of the JJ-Star Award for Best Korean Film at the Jeonju International Film Festival in 2012, as well as a competitor at several prestigious international events, such as the Fribourg International Film Festival and the Nantes Three Continents Festival, where it earned Special Jury Mention, Sleepless Night has developed a strong following among indie film lovers and afforded JANG an opportunity to make his next film after impressing Japanese auteur KAWASE Naomi, who invited him to make his next work as a commissioned feature of her Nara International Film Festival. 

His next work was A Midsummer's Fantasia, which opened Nara in 2014 and went on to become his most commercially successful work and one that introduced many to actress KIM Sae-byuk (The First Lap, 2017), who has gone on to become of the most in-demand performers in Korea’s indie realm.