Film Forum

South Korea, 2018
Directed by Lee Chang-dong
Screenplay by Oh Jung-min, Lee Chang-dong
With Yoo Ah-in, Steven Yeun, Jeon Jong-seo
Approx. 148 min. DCP.

“Jong-su (Yoo Ah-in), a young man from a fragmented family, wants to be a writer, and you sometimes wonder if the entire story is taking place inside his head. Yet the other characters seem real enough: Ben (Steven Yeun), a rich kid with suspicious amounts of time on his hands, and Hae-mi (Jeon Jong-seo), a former schoolmate of Jong-su, who befriends him anew, invites him back to her cramped apartment, makes love to him, and then, a while later, disappears. The rest of the film, directed by Lee Chang-dong, and based on a story by Haruki Murakami, originally published in The New Yorker, follows the hero’s quest—both fervid and fumbling—to locate the missing woman.” – Anthony Lane, The New Yorker

Presented with support from the Ada Katz Fund for Literature in Film and the Reginald S. Reinhardt, Ling-Makekau Fund for Asia-Pacific Films

Reviews

“An exceptionally smart script transforms a Murakami short story into an ambiguous drama about drifting twentysomethings, which reflects the anger of a restless generation.”
– Tony Rayns, Sight & Sound

“Gets under your skin in completely unexpected ways.”
– Brian Tallerico, RogerEbert.com

“Sizzles with a cumulative power that will knock the wind out of you.”
– Peter Travers, Rolling Stone