The Busan International Film Festival has selected Kim Jong-kwan’s upcoming romance drama The Table: Day and Night as its opening film for the 2026 edition, organizers confirmed Tuesday. The movie will have its world premiere on October 6, kicking off the festival’s main program.
The selection marks a return to the festival for director Kim Jong-kwan, who previously earned acclaim for his intimate, dialogue-driven portraits of contemporary relationships. In The Table: Day and Night, Kim shifts his focus to a single, quiet alleyway café, where four different couples sit down at the same table over the course of a day and night. Each pair arrives at a different stage of love - some just beginning to feel the first sparks of attraction, others grappling with the sour residue of a relationship that has gone cold. The café’s menu of coffees, ranging from sweet to bitter, mirrors the emotional spectrum that unfolds across the film’s four vignettes.
The ensemble cast features Kim Min-ha as Yu-jin, Joo Jong-hyuk as Hyeon-oh, Han Seon-hwa as Sang-mi, Chang Ryul as Young-min, Shim Eun-kyung as Hye-jin, Lee Hee-jun as Dong-nam, Jeon So-young as Na-kyeong, and Kim Dong-hwi as Dong-su. The film is being positioned as a quiet, character-focused entry, a stark contrast to the big-budget action and effects-heavy titles that often dominate festival opening slots.
For Busan, choosing The Table: Day and Night signals a continued commitment to championing intimate Korean independent cinema on the world stage. The festival has a long history of spotlighting directors who work outside the commercial studio system, and Kim Jong-kwan fits squarely within that tradition. His previous films, including Take Care of My Cat and A Boy and Sungreen, have been celebrated for their unhurried pacing and acute observations of daily life. This new project appears to continue that approach, stripping away melodrama in favor of raw, conversational realism.
The announcement was met with enthusiasm from Kim Min-ha, who plays Yu-jin in the film. “It is a huge honor to be part of a film that opens a festival as meaningful as Busan,” she said. “Working with director Kim Jong-kwan was a lesson in restraint and honesty. He asked us to find the truth in silence and the weight of a simple glance. I hope audiences feel that same intimacy when they watch the film.”
Joo Jong-hyuk, who plays Hyeon-oh, also echoed those sentiments, noting the unique atmosphere on set. “The café setting was like a pressure cooker of unspoken emotions,” he said. “We would rehearse lines until they felt almost accidental, and then the camera would just breathe with us. It felt less like acting and more like listening. I think that quality will come through in the final cut.”
While the film’s runtime has not yet been confirmed, the project’s structure - four distinct stories interwoven into a single location - suggests a tightly composed narrative. The script reportedly flows from morning to night, with each couple’s conversation revealing more about the fragile nature of modern romance. The café itself becomes a character of sorts, a neutral ground where lovers meet to either rekindle, confront, or let go.
The opening film slot at Busan is a coveted position, often setting the tone for the entire festival. In recent years, organizers have used it to balance commercial draws with art-house pedigree, and this year’s choice leans distinctly toward the latter. The Table: Day and Night is expected to generate strong international interest, particularly among distributors looking for the next acclaimed Korean drama in the vein of Past Lives or On the Beach at Night Alone.
The festival’s full lineup is expected to be announced in the coming weeks, with the 2026 edition running through mid-October. For now, the opening night spotlight firmly rests on Kim Jong-kwan’s quiet, conversation-heavy meditation on love’s many flavors. The film’s release date is set for October 6, with the premiere taking place during the festival’s opening ceremony. Additional release details beyond the festival screening have not yet been disclosed, but the buzz surrounding the selection is likely to accelerate pre-festival sales and international bookings.
In a year that has seen a resurgence of interest in Korean cinema’s more introspective offerings, The Table: Day and Night arrives as a deliberate, low-key counterpoint to louder tentpole releases. Whether the film’s restraint will translate into commercial success remains an open question, but its placement at the front of the festival tells a clear story: Busan is betting on nuance, on the power of a single table and the people who sit around it. As the October premiere approaches, all eyes in the Korean film world will be on that quiet alleyway, waiting to see what the morning and the midnight conversations reveal.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
