Night Fishing (Park Chan-wook, 2011)

Night Fishing (Park Chan-wook, 2011) is a 33 minute short film that follows a man on a fishing trip who catches more than he bargained for after dragging the corpse of a woman out of a lake.

The film is interesting for a number of reasons. Firstly, the entire film was shot on iPhone. Despite this, the film only uses a unique movement once, towards the beginning where a crane shot pans right as the camera moves over the ground. Throughout the rest of the film, usual camera movements and shots are used. However, the camera is remains still and steady, and after some time I forgot that the film was shot on a phone.

The other interesting thing about the film is the fact that it begins as a music video, with a band performing a song. The film remains on them for almost 3 minutes, before eventually swapping focus to the protagonist The lyrics of the song add meaning to the film, but this music video format is a sharp contrast to the supernatural thriller/horror that follows.

Finally, the film includes a twist around 18 minutes in, the reveal being that the protagonist is actually dead, and currently transitioning to the afterlife. The woman they meet is the spiritual medium in real life who he uses to communicate with his family for the final time. This twist is very sudden, but takes a few moments to be explained to the audience, as we cut to a completely new location where the previously dead woman is now alive and screaming in front of a group of people in what seems to be some sort of ritual practice. It is then shown to us, not through dialogue but through mise-en-scene and performances, that the fisherman passed away while on a fishing trip. We see this from an image of him decorated with candles, which reflects people mourning over him, and his family being clearly distraught as they talk to him through the medium. The twist is well done, but very jarring as the camera suddenly cuts from still close ups to a handheld wide shot, and the transition takes a minute as the woman is submerged and hallucinates the lake that she was in previously. It also completely removes a character, and changes the course of the story for the final 15 minutes, which are much more emotional than the previous scenes, which were suspenseful and even disturbing at points.

Some shots that I remember in particular and may choose to include in my final film is the handheld tracking crab shot of the woman after climbing out of the bath, the close low angle shot of the woman’s face, or the arch shot that circles around the fisherman as he sits patiently by the lake with his fishing rods set up in front of him. These are all shots that I may use in my own film, although the idea of using a twist would completely alter my idea and the execution of it, as-well as a musical performance to set up the film, so I will not use them in my film.