Red Card + Sunrise/Sunset

Korean American filmmaker Ougie Pak conjures atmospheric films of emotional heft and quietly beautiful imagery, reflections of an infatuation with the identities of both American coasts. Sunrise/Sunset, Pak’s debut and a BAMcinemaFest selection, is an outsider’s portrait of New York City, reveling in the thrill and dizziness of a Korean man’s tumultuous arrival. In his latest work Red Card, Pak crosses the country, depicting a gang member love story nestled in California’s San Gabriel Valley.

Red Card (2023)
Dir. Ougie Pak
48min; Digital

Pak explores masculinity and control in this neon-lit drama set amongst the diaspora of Los Angeles. At an underground hostess bar in the San Gabriel Valley, CA, a Taiwanese American gang member breaks the cardinal rule of his job when he falls in love with the new star girl of the club.

Sunrise/Sunset (2019)
Dir. Ougie Pak
47min; Digital

After failing his university entrance exams for the third year in a row, Min Suk, a directionless twenty-something Korean man, travels to New York to visit his long-distance girlfriend Yeon Jae. Over the course of a rollercoaster week, he experiences both the thrill of losing himself in a new city and the bitter realization that his relationship is gradually imploding. A romantic, outsider’s view of New York shot in elegiac black and white, Sunrise/Sunset perfectly captures the wonder and disorientation that comes with being a stranger adrift in a strange land.