It almost sounds like a drinking binge at Debut in Itaewon – a man “drinks too much, falls in with other wanderers, crosses paths too many times with the wrong people, and ends up waking up in the snow by the highway, without his pants,” but it’s not – it is part of Michael Atkinson’s review of the Korean movie “Daytime Drinking.” The movie, which Atkinson describes “as eventless, but as seductive and wistful, as a real afternoon boozing spree,” has won several awards and was released in Canada several months ago on DVD. According to Atkinson:
The cultural context, provided neatly on the Canadian DVD notes by Asian film obsessive Grady Hendrix, is simply that Koreans drink a lot, and they drink a lot of soju (a cheap, low-amp, sweetened vodka potion, consumed at the rate of almost seven gallons per adult per year), and so movies like Noh’s (and Hong Sang-soo’s, among others) express a reality all Koreans can relate to — the lost comedy of waking up in strange places, of losing time, or forgetting why you are where you are, and just letting life carry you forward.
Even Rotten tomatoes seems to like it with one critic/commenter noting: “Daytime Drinking is proof that a good script and simpatico direction and performances can overcome budgetary restrictions.”
For those of you with an interest, here is a trailer of the movie on Youtube.
I am sure there are more than a few Expats in Korea who can relate to the Soju Experience. Anyone remember “Jungle Juice?”
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I’m glad this film made it out of the country, it is great and more or less representative of what has given Korean film a great reputation than more recent, higher budget stuff.
Thanks for this. I’ve resolved to watch more Korean movies and this is the quirky, offbeat kind of thing that just might be different enough from the run-of-the-mill mindless stuff to be interesting.
For you readers that are up on downloading files via p2p network (which I expect includes most every expat who owns a computer), you can get this online. bitjunkie.org has it, for example. I’m guessing the pirate bay does too. I’m downloading it right now. Reasonably quick download too–looks like it will take about an hour.
If, by any chance, there is a person out there who has questions about how to download and use files this way but is too ashamed to ask on this thread, I’d be happy to help: vognostroclum[at]hotmail[dot]com.
Ohhh yeah I saw this one bout half a year ago and it was hilarious!!
“Daytime Drinking is proof that a good script and simpatico direction and performances can overcome budgetary restrictions.”
James Cameron’s Avatar is proof that a limitless budget cannot overcome a bad script and cliched direction and performances.
Pohang, I think Pirate Bay got dismantled/neutered/taken down several months ago. Thanks for the reference to bitjunkie. Subtitles are there two I suppose? I’ll hit this up when I get home. Wikipedia likens the movie to Sideways, which was great, with a Korean flavor.
No pants, on the ground. No pants, on the ground. Looking like a fool with no pants, on the ground.
No it wasn’t. Or so my friend said.
Hmmm, many long hours in Debut but never lost my pants there. That place next door? Not so much…
Ah, Debut. Is my picture still on the wall?
Yes, Pirate Bay is still up, just turned off it’s tracker.
But I’m confused. This Debut place. I’ve goofed off a lot in Itaewon over the years, in many places, and thought I knew everywhere worth knowing there. But I don’t know this Debut place… or if it’s the place I am thinking of, I thought it was a gay bar. Am I missing out on something?
Ah Debut…. If ever TMH has a meet-up, it should be there.
I saw the trailer for this on apple.com while I was still in Korea, and it definitely looked good. Thanks for your review!
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