Ad Lib Night
Aju Tukbyulhan Sonnym

South Korea, 2006, 99 min
In Korean with English subtitles

Directed By: Lee Yoon-ki
Writer: Lee Yoon-ki
Producers: Yun Il-joong, Lee Dong-yoon
Cinematographer: Choi Sang-ho
Editor: Kim Hyung-Joo, Jeong Kwang-jun
Music: Kim Jung-bum
Cast: Han Hyo-joo, Kim Young-min, Choi Ill-hwa, Kim Joong-ki

Three young men approach a pretty young woman on a street corner in Seoul. They insist she's Myung-eun, a girl from their small town whom they haven't seen in 10 years. She insists she isn't. Undeterred, they tell her Myung-eun's father is dying of cancer and ask her to come back home with them to pretend she's the prodigal daughter. The girl agrees. As the night goes on and the girl gets into playing her part, the questions remain: who is she really? And why is she there?

Adapted from a Japanese short story by Taira Azuko, Korean filmmaker Lee Yoon-ki, whose first film was the festival favorite This Charming Girl, uses one girl's strange one-night journey through someone else's past to dissect contemporary Korean family life with delicacy and humor. No one knows why Myung-eun disappeared after she went away to school in the city, but between the bickering neighbors, bossy patriarchs, and greedy relatives, it soon becomes clear why she may not have wanted to come back. Nevertheless, isolated by Lee's camera as she silently observes the convivial insanity, star Han Hyo-joo's ethereal face suggests loneliness and longing that can't be soothed by the metropolis. Keeping its secrets until the very end, Ad Lib Night is a mysterious, funny, and poignant tale about family ties in a world of big anonymous cities and small nosy towns.
 - Lucia Bozzola

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