Ad-Lib Night
For those who were fans of this director’s first film, “This Charming
Girl”, they will likely find this one to their liking as well as it shares
much of the same characteristics and style of that film. And for those who
found “This Charming Girl” rather slow and pointless, their reaction to Ad-Lib
Night may be the similar. Director Lee Yoon-ki provides us with small subtle
enigmatic slices of life, that are neither particularly dramatic nor comic
– they are just there and that is perhaps their beauty. It seems almost courageous
to make films like this these days – especially in a film culture as rabidly
commercial as the one in present day Korea. There is nothing here that can
possibly attract a mass audience and probably not even a marginal one. The
movies feel negligible, nearly without a plot and with hard to decipher characters
– and yet they have a fascination of their own and have gathered a small
but ardent group of admirers.
In an outdoor park, two young men approach a girl (Han Hyo-ju) and
ask her if she is Myeong-eun, a girl that they knew from years ago and who
they have been looking for. She convinces the boys that she is not, but because
of her resemblance to Myeong-eun they ask a favor of her. Myeong-eun’s father
is on his death bed and they would like her to pretend to be the man’s long
vanished daughter so that he can die in peace. For unknown reasons she agrees
and travels with them back to their small rural town. And very little happens.
Friends and family of the dying man have gathered in his house waiting through
his final hours and they drink, fight, talk and eat – the girl hovers about
but she remains a very enigmatic person – you wonder if she could in fact
really be the daughter. It is hard to say exactly why you stay with this
film, but somehow you have to.
My rating for this film: 7.5
Reviewed: 02/07