Jong Sil, a sound effects director, is awarded a carte blanche for his ingenious invention of a coke bottle opener sound used in a commercial film for an Arab client. Ecstatic, drunk, he heads home to his wife and kids, only to end up spending the night in an apartment unit one floor above which belongs to a single woman. The preposterous one-night-stand snowballs into a major event, for which he is reported gone missing on TV. Lost, Jong Sil becomes more involved with the woman, discovering things about her, as their relationship takes an unexpected turn. Three Times Each for Short and Long Ways is one of the most celebrated films by KIM Ho Sun, produced in the 1980’s. (KIM had made an overnight commercial sensation with his Yeong-Ja’s Heydays, an adaptation of a novel by CHO Seon Jak, after his debut film Hwannyeo.) The film successfully fine-tunes balance between the socially-conscious realism showcased in Yeong-Ja’s Heydays and the populist melodrama portrayed in Winter Woman series. The sophisticated black comedy and the erotic fantasies of a middle-aged, middle-class man are intertwined with criticism of the capitalist desire which dominated the 1980’s Korean society. High-rise apartment buildings frequently appearing as the backdrop serve as the epicenter charged with the desire and anxiety of the era. (Jin PARK)