A girl is standing alone, near a park somewhere in downtown in Seoul. Two men are watching her, as they discuss whether she is the girl in the picture that one of the guys has in his hand. Then they walk up to the girl and asks if she is Ko Myungeun. The girl politely says no. The guy repeatedly asks her if she is sure and the agitated girl then walks away.

The two men talk among themselves again, before they catch up to the girl walking away. One of the guys asks for a moment so he can ask her for a favor. He explains that the girl in the picture is a runaway from a distant rural town. Her father is in the late stages of lung cancer and could do die at any moment. The two men came to Seoul to find the runaway daughter, but they do not have much time left. They ask if she would be willing to go back with them and pretend to be the dying man’s daughter forjust one day. Initially, the girl says no, but as they plead some more the girl surpisingly says “yes.”

Ad Lib Night is actually an adaptation from a Japanese short story by Taira Azuko. The film was shot with HD Cameras in only 10 days and has a decidely low budget indie film feel to the movie - which I loved. As stated earlier, the first ten minutes or so of the film provides for some genuinely intriguing moments, that grabs your attention immediately. After the opening sequence, I really had no idea where the movie would go. Would the family in the country turn out to be the crazy kind of folks as shown in A Bloody Aria, or would the guys driving her out to into the country turn out to be murders like Memories of Murder, or would the girl turn out to be the actual daughter of the dying father in a surprise twist?

The film actually takes none of these paths, and focuses more on the dynamics of death as it effects close family members and even strangers. Although the family members never came out and said such things, most of the family members seemed to be there mainly to receive an inheritance. The sooner the man passed away, the better it would be for them as they could get on with their lives. The ensemble cast of family members were portrayed in a realistic manner, often bickering among themselves over things that family members normally bicker about. They also never truly grieved for the dying person, as one would think family members would do.

In fact, the one person to grasp the profoundness of the situation would have been the girl that agreed to stand in for the runaway daughter. Her identity was a mystery during most of the film, as well as her motives for doing some of the things that she did. When she was in the runaway girl’s bedroom, she would slip on the missing girl’s socks over her own. When the father died, the girl would walk over to the dead man and hold his hand, while whispering a few words into his ear. The reasons why she did these things were explained during the closing moments of the film. Once these facts are known, her actions seemed even more heartfelt than before.

One small complaint with Ad Lib Night would have been the slow pacing of the film during the middle portions. Although the portrayal of the family members were realistic, that entire section felt like it could have been shortened or at least have a few more dynamic elements added, to make it as compelling as the beginning and ending portions.

Besides that one complaint, I did really enjoy the movie. Ad Lib Night is the type of movie that will appeal to the viewer even more once they finish watching the movie. All the details are not given out until the film’s resolution and once these facts are known, you can replay the events of the movie in your mind and appreciate the actions by some of the characters even more.