Night and Day (Bam gua nat) (2008)

A hilarious film about a 40 year old painter who leaves his wife for Paris after being sought by the police for smoking pot. Wracked by unemployment, loneliness, and idleness, he occupies his time with chasing after local Korean women. Hong's known for his critical portrayal of male egos and narcissism. Some have aptly described Hong's films as being about "drunk Korean douchebags" and "people getting drunk and looking stupid trying to fuck each other". Here the main character Sung-nam is an awkward, indecisive, and impulsive lump of a man. One particularly hilarious episode in the film illustrates his qualities beautifully. Sung-nam invites his old flame to a hotel to have sex, but at the last second changes his mind and reads to his nearly naked partner a passage from the Bible about how sinners must gauges out their eyes before succumbing to their lust. Later that day he calls his wife and asks her to masturbate to him over the phone. The women lack no human fallacies of their own. During a road trip, the two roommates react bitterly over their competition for Sung-nam, using petty complaints like refusing to pay for the gas as excuses for their jealous behavior. The humor in general works extremely well because it is rooted in stuff like petty jealousies that are completely believable and relatable, even if they can be awkward to watch. To his credit Hong handles all the human relationships with subtlety and in an understated manner.Since the narrative takes place over several months, Hong adopts a anecdotal, diary-like structure, with title cards marking the progression of dates. Hong's treatment of the Parisian setting with all its daily ambiance of the city reminds me of Rivette, not to mention the Rivette-like length of the film. What's particularly interesting is that the film takes a page out of Luis Buñuel in its deceptive and hilariously surreal dream sequences. There's even a toe-sucking scene inspired by L'Age D'Or. The Buñuel tribute makes sense since both directors were interested in exploring human desire and how social norms clashes with base human instincts.