The Table: Day and Night Opens Busan With Four Romances at One Table
A single coffeehouse table anchors four romances in The Table: Day and Night, the film chosen to open the 31st Busan International Film Festival on 6 October.
The selection was confirmed by festival organisers ahead of the run from 6 to 15 October. The film is a romantic anthology, four separate stories cut into one feature, directed by Kim Jong-kwan, according to Variety. It expands his 2016 film The Table. That earlier film followed four different couples meeting at the same table in the same cafe over the course of a single day.
The new film keeps the same device of strangers talking at one table in one room. It still uses a single coffeehouse as its fixed location. It stretches its four encounters across weeks, from summer into autumn, rather than fitting them into one day.
The ensemble brings together Kim Min-ha, Shim Eun-kyung and Han Sun-hwa in leading roles. They are joined by Joo Jong-hyuk, Chang Ryul and Lee Hee-jun as scene partners. Each woman headlines her own encounter. The table stays put. The faces change.
In “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Kim Min-ha plays Yoo-jin opposite Joo Jong-hyuk as Hyeon-oh. In “Still Ourselves,” Han Sun-hwa plays Sang-mi opposite Chang Ryul as Young-min. In “T.P.A.,” Shim Eun-kyung plays web novelist Hye-jin opposite Lee Hee-jun as filmmaker Dong-nam. The three chapter titles were confirmed as “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” “Still Ourselves” and “T.P.A.” Each pairing gets its own chapter. Each chapter returns to the same seats.
Festival organisers listed The Table: Day and Night as the Opening Film, the first feature presented in the programme, according to the Busan International Film Festival. The 31st edition runs from 6 to 15 October, a ten-day programme that begins with the opening ceremony. Actor Kim Minha hosted the evening’s proceedings at that opening ceremony, according to Variety. Two more performers connected to the film, Jeon So-young and Kim Dong-hwi, took part in Busan Talks, the festival’s public conversation series with actors and filmmakers, according to Variety.
What makes this stand out for returning viewers is time. The premise stays deliberately tight. One table. One cafe. But the calendar now moves. Summer light gives way to autumn, and weeks pass between conversations.
