#i've written a a review for it on letterboxd although it's very unedited and rough

[forleejehoon]

If you're a recent Lee Jehoon fan and feel like his acting is one of a kind, I urge you to watch his full-length movie debut in a piece called Bleak Night back from 2011 if you haven't already! I can assure, it will make you fall for his acting even more.

This movie is defined as a coming-of-age drama and has an overall indie feel to it. It's a story of a group of highschool friends – more precisely, the storyline follows along Gitae's (Lee Jehoon) dad who tries to understand why his son took his own life. Bit by bit, the events leading up to the incident are revealed to the viewers, too. It makes you constantly question "who's to blame?" and I feel like this question is the driving force of the story.

In general sense, this movie is about boyhood. Director Yoon Sunghyun, whose debut work was actually Bleak Night itself, expands on intricacies of relationships between guy friends and masterfully reveals the subtleties of boyhood as a stage of life using long shots, face close-ups and hand-held shaky camera work; it all feels very raw. It's strong, it's bitter, it hurts, yet it also leaves your heart open and warm for some unidentifiable reason.

Jehoon starred in Bleak Night together with Park Jeongmin (first from right in the picture; another genius actor, he does mostly movies though) and the piece is considered to have kicked off both of their acting careers since they showed truly captivating performances.

This movie is a masterpiece in the way it captures nuance and emotion, especially since it talks about feelings of young men who are just entering adulthood – a topic that's still considered rather taboo in this day and age. It's one of those movies you definitely have to watch at least once in a lifetime.

Bleak Night trailer with English subtitles

Fun fact: Jehoon happened to pass out from smoking too much while filming for this project. He said it was because before he didn't smoke at all but suddenly had to learn it for his character.