Though likely too culturally specific to make much of an impact internationally - the Korean audience members frequently reacted to nuances of language and delivery that were completely lost in translation - and showing some of the limitations that can come with a debut writer-director, Kwon Young Chul's A Good Night's Sleep For The Bad is nonetheless a promising picture, one that hints at good things in Kwon's future. A gritty crime drama that takes a number of familiar elements and assembles them in unusual fashion, A Good Night's Sleep showcases Kwon's ability to invert a number of standard genre rules to create something distinct and engaging.
Yun Seong is a young man with a problem. Just twenty four and with no legitimate prospects, his father is in prison and his mother dead, leaving Yun Seong with the unenviable task of raising his two younger siblings himself while also keeping his father's debt collectors at bay. An education is not an option for Yun Seong. His days are spent pumping gas. His nights spent dreaming of scraping together the funds to move himself and his siblings to Canada before his father is released from prison. But how can a young man working a no-hope, minimum wage job ever hope to scrape that kind of money together?