Sunrise/Sunset

"How could she be so pretty even when she's asleep?"

Love the beautiful black and white cinematography in NYC, and the two leads are both wonderfully natural in this short film from Ougie Pak. Like his later project Red Card (2023), we get to see a young couple develop a romance, and just as in that film, Pak's montage work of those giddy moments of new love is fantastic. In a similar theme, the relationship just as quickly falls apart, with the man's shortcomings being a major reason (Sunrise/Sunset, get it?). I think this would have resonated even more for me had the film been longer, so that we felt more of an established relationship, but the point also seemed to be the young man's grasping at dreams without fully putting in the work to achieve them, as evidenced by his naïve views of going to American college. The melancholy note during his self-reflection, and the line "why am I always like this?" made for a strong ending.