ACF 1428: The DAY HE ARRIVES opens in New York on April 20th

 The Day He Arrives / Book chon bang hyang

Directed by HONG Sangsoo 

South Korea, 2011, 8079 minutes 

When: Opens Friday, April 20, 2012 in NYC
Followed by national release

Where: Lincoln Plaza Cinemas

1886 Broadway, NYC
 Map and directions here
A Cinema Guild Release

New York recently has been in what's seemed like an invasion of Korea films in general and the works of HONG Sangsoo in particular. The Korea Society and the Museum of the Moving Image co-presented a retrospective of five of his films in March. (Read about that here.) And OKI's Movie (2010) will have it's U.S. theatrical premiere in New York on April 16th. (My review here.)

The Day He Arrives, HONG's latest release, will open here in New York next Friday, April 20th. A national release will follow.  I'll be posting a full review next week. For now, here's a brief description of the film.

Synopsis: A film director who no longer makes films, Seongjun, arrives in Seoul to meet a close friend. When the friend doesn't show up, Seongjun wanders the city aimlessly. He runs into an actress he used to know, shares a drink with some film students and against his better judgment, heads to his ex-girlfriend's apartment. The next day goes very much like the last; Seongjun meets the actress, has drinks with friends, and falls for woman who looks remarkably like his ex-girlfriend. Each new day plays out like a flimsy copy of the previous one, but only Seongjun knows why. Infused with a playfulness and dry wit that recalls the films of Woody Allen and Eric Rohmer, The Day He Arrives is a delightful meditation on relationships, filmmaking, and the unknowable forces that govern our lives.