Sleepless Night

Dragons & Tigers Award-winner Jang Kunjae (Eighteen, 2009) returns with a completely charming account of young married life, the polar opposite of Bergman’s Scenes from a Marriage. It may well be rooted in autobiography (Jang’s producer-wife Kim Woori is co-credited with the storyline) but the characters are fictional and have credible lives of their own. The guy works in deliveries and is exploited by his boss; the wife is a fitness instructor. Nothing very dramatic happens to them; their worst patch comes when he’s fired for asking for overtime pay and she has her bike stolen. Mostly they just do the things we all do—eat, chat, relax, fall out and make up—and it’s an intense pleasure to watch them. There’s evidence: Exhibit A is the audience prize at Jeonju Festival in Korea; Exhibit B is the Young Critics’ prize at Edinburgh Fim Festival in Scotland. Plays with: Sorry, I Am So Sorry

— Tony Rayns