As a former New Yorker, I have a soft spot for a film that features familiar NYC locations. Whether writer-director Ougie Pak shot Sunrise/Sunset in Times Square, Washington Square Park, Madison Square Park, the Lincoln Center courtyard, the glass-boxed Apple store on Fifth Avenue as well as on The High Line and the Columbia Univeristy campus, and the brooklyn Bridge for ease or symbolism doesn't matter to me. Even seeing signage indicating Broadway and 76th Street feels quietly significant. A walk to the Queensboro Bridge even more so. Do it all in black and white and I'm that much more nostalgic.
Sunrise/Sunset's story is admittedly slight: A young Korean man (Lee Kwangmin) -- still wearing braces -- comes to NYC to visit his girlfriend (Kim Woohyun) who's moved abroad with the hopes of getting into an American college. During his weeklong visit, their relationship begins to unravel as his spontaneous fantasy of attending Columbia University is frustrated by a matriculating student (Paik Tobee) who advises him that he'll need to prep for his SATs, not just TOEFL. (His school tests in Korea didn't go so well.) A self-directed crash course at the Barnes & Noble culminates in his prompting Google translator to speak the English equivalents for curse words from his native tongue. At 47 minutes, this doesn't qualify as Pak's first feature. I'd call it a long novice short. You can grade it accordingly.
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