Busan International Film Festival to Open With 'Day and Night Are for Each Other,' Eight Romances on Oct. 6

'Day and Night Are for Each Other', an eight-person ensemble blossoming at the edge of the seasons

Asia's largest film festival, the '31st Busan International Film Festival', will open its grand 10-day run on Oct. 6 with 'Day and Night Are for Each Other,' the latest film from director Kim Jong-kwan.

Festival organizers announced on the 19th that the film had been selected as the opening work. 'Day and Night Are for Each Other' captures, with quiet intensity, the stories of four pairs of men and women who cross paths at a cafe during the seasonal transition from summer to fall. Eight acclaimed actors — including Kim Min-ha, Joo Jong-hyuk, Han Sun-hwa, Chang Ryul, Shim Eun-kyung, Lee Hee-joon, Jeon So-young and Kim Dong-hwi — joined the cast, further elevating the film's overall quality.

The festival offered an unequivocal assessment of why the film was selected. It praised the movie as “a fluid, outstanding work in which the cinematic perspective and style Kim has persistently explored as a creator have reached a provisional maturity.” Its greatest strength, the festival said, is the thoughtful way it captures the characters' individual inner lives and the subtle ripples in their relationships without relying on contrived setups or exaggerated developments.

Director Kim Jong-kwan, who made his debut with the 2004 short film 'How to Operate a Polaroid Camera', has built a distinctive and delicate aesthetic through feature films including 'Come, Closer' (2010), 'Worst Woman' (2016), 'The Table' (2017) and 'Josée' (2020).

Meanwhile, the '31st Busan International Film Festival', which draws the attention of filmmakers around the world, is set to fill Busan with cinematic energy for 10 days, from Oct. 6 through 15.