SXSW 2009 Preview: ‘Daytime Drinking’

Some people just have a passion for drinking.   I remember playing a drinking game in college that involved naming as many brands of beer as you can.   I was lucky to have remember Heineken and got the boot after four rounds.   There were, however, some people who went hours going back and forth naming brands of beer that I would swear they were just making up to pass the time.

Some cultures have their passion for drinking, as well.   Take ‘Daytime Drinking’, for instance.   It’s a South Korean film whose heart and soul is reaching the bottom of a bottle.

Check out the synopsis:

After breaking up with his girlfriend, Hyuk-jin hits bar in Seoul with his friends. Totally drunk, they decide to take a trip to a festival in Joengseon, a small town out in the Korean countryside, to console Hyuk-jin’s broken heart. They agree to leave first thing the next day.

However, when Hyuk-Jin gets off the bus the next afternoon, he finds out he’s the only one that made the trip. He calls his friends, but they all had horrible hangovers and completely forgot. Worse, he quickly finds that the festival they were headed to was weeks ago, and the tiny beach town is shuttered- the shops aren’t open, there are no other tourists there, and the beach is freezing cold. Hyuk-jin is truly, honestly, alone.

When one of his friends suggests Hyuk-jin wait for them at a hostel run by an old pal from college, he agrees. He seeks it out, not realizing that not only is the place he’s sleeping in not the right hotel in the slightest, but that this is just the beginning of a very strange adventure.

Over the next few days, Hyuk-jin finds himself in a series of increasingly bizarre situations, most of them aided by the fact that, due to his respect for the etiquette of Korean drinking culture, Hyuk-jin finds it difficult to refuse a drink when someone offers him one. With his friends still saying they’ll come, but not showing up, and his wallet gone, Hyuk-jin has to figure out how get out of what must surely be the world’s worst hangover, get back to Seoul, and end his drunken odyssey.

For more information on ‘Daytime Drinking’, check out their official site.

‘Daytime Drinking’ plays at SXSW on Saturday, March 14th at 1:45PM at Alamo Lamar 2 and on Thursday, March 19th at 11:30PM at Alamo Lamar 3.