The Busan International Film Festival has selected Kim Jong-kwan’s The Table: Day and Night, a tender drama about four couples who experience romantic moments in the same Seoul cafe, as the opening film of its 31st edition. The drama will world premiere at the Busan Cinema Center on Oct. 6, the festival announced Wednesday.
Kim has built his reputation in the Korean film industry with a flair for elegantly constructed short stories. He won the jury prize at the Mise-en-scène Short Film Festival for his 2004 debut How to Operate a Polaroid Camera, and has returned repeatedly to anthology work — directing segments of the Netflix series Persona (2019), which featured filmmakers building shorts around K-pop star IU, as well as Vestige (2022) and The Killers (2024).
Even his features have tended to operate like collections of interlaced shorts. The Table: Day and Night appears to be a loose follow-up to his 2016 feature The Table, a chamber piece featuring four women discussing their past and present romantic entanglements at the same table in a Seoul cafe over the course of a single day. That feature premiered at BIFF in 2016 and became one of his best-known works.
The Table: Day and Night follows four couples as they experience sparks of romance in a Seoul coffee shop over the summer and autumn months. Mostly conversation based, the film depicts a chance encounter between Yoo-jin (Kim Minha) and Hyeon-oh (Joo Jong-hyuk); an unexpected reunion between Sang-mi (Han Sun-hwa) and Young-min (Chang Ryul), who were friends in middle school and discover a fresh bond; a rush of creative chemistry between web novelist Hye-jin (Shim Eun-kyung) and indie filmmaker Dong-nam (Lee Hee-jun); and a bittersweet moment between idol trainee Na-kyeong (Jeon So-young) and her boyfriend Jong-su (Kim Dong-hwi).
In its announcement, BIFF described its choice of curtain-raiser as “an elegant and assured film in which the cinematic interests, style, perspective, and world that Kim Jong-kwan has persistently explored as a filmmaker reach a provisional culmination.”
“Without relying on excessive setups or dramatic turns, it greatest merit lies in how thoughtfully it captures the unique inner voices and emotions of its characters, as well as the subtle shifts in their relationships,” the festival added.
One of the film’s stars, Kim Minha of Pachinko fame, will also host Busan’s opening ceremony, where Michelle Yeoh will be honored as the event’s Asian Filmmaker of the Year, Ann Hui will receive the Chanel-backed Camellia Award, and Kim Dong-ho, the festival’s own founder, will be presented with the Korean Cinema Award. The 31st Busan International Film Festival runs Oct. 6-15, with the Asian Contents & Film Market held Oct. 10-13.
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