A new film, Night Fishing, premiered at CGV, one of South Korea’s major film outlets, last Friday, June 14th. Remarkably, the film’s runtime is just 12 minutes and 59 seconds, and the admission fee is only 1,000 Korean Won (approximately 0.75 USD).
The movie stars Son Suk-ku, known for his roles in TV dramas such as Matrimonial Chaos (2018), Designated Survivor: 60 Days (2019), My Liberation Notes (2022), and A Killer Paradox (2024). It is directed by his friend, Moon Byung-gon, whose short film Safe won the Palme d′Or at the 66th Cannes Film Festival, marking the first time a Korean film received this honor. The Korean press has dubbed Night Fishing a “snack movie” due to its short runtime and notes that it is the first film of its kind.
However, Night Fishing is not entirely unprecedented. In the early history of cinema, one-reel films, which run about 11 minutes, were the dominant form of filmic entertainment before evolving into multi-reel and feature films. These early films were episodic and sketch-like. In the early 20th century, American nickelodeons allowed patrons to watch multiple one-reel films for just 5 cents (equivalent to about 1.75 USD today). The initial novelty of cinema, which lay in its ability to record and project realistic images, gradually shifted to the joy of watching storytelling on celluloid. These films thrived on the excitement of new image reproduction technology intertwined with narrative.
Interestingly, Night Fishing also showcases technological innovation, much like early one-reel films. The cost of watching it is comparable to that of a nickelodeon show. The entire film is shot using cameras mounted on an IONIQ5, a level 4 self-driving car that operates without human assistance. This raises intriguing questions about the future of filmmaking, hinting at a new era where autonomous machines could potentially make human involvement obsolete. Traditionally, films have been seen as the creative visions of directors. With a film shot by a car, one might speculate that the era of films as artistic expressions of cinematic masters could be waning, much like John Wayne’s character walking into the desert in The Searchers.
Although the full production details of Night Fishing are not available, it is evident that the director choreographed the movements of the car that filmed it. Nonetheless, Night Fishing offers a novel excitement akin to that experienced by audiences of one-reel films in the early days of cinema, blending new technology with storytelling in a fresh and intriguing way.
