White Night

Korea’s pioneering gay filmmaker LeeSong Heeil (he uses the queer convention of taking both his mother’s and his father’s surnames) follows up his rent-boy drama No Regrets with a tight, noir-ish story about a fateful, maybe life-changing sexual encounter. The moody Kang Won-gyu is back in Seoul from Germany (where he has a husband) for a very short visit. He’s heard that the thugs who gay-bashed him and his friend a few years ago are now out of jail. His former lover wants to leave the past behind and move on, but Kang has other ideas. On the wintery night streets (is it going to snow?) he runs into a motorcycle courier who is looking for the blind-date he arranged on the Internet. Their night together is long, eventful and emotionally difficult. But it sure as hell goes somewhere. –Tony Rayns