Lee Yoon-ki is the “Emerging Master” of the opening weekend, which means the festival is screening a matched set of his films: the 2004 feature debut The Charming Girl; and his new film My Dear Enemy. Both are well-observed character studies that don’t tack as you would expect them to as they leisurely wind through the lives of its characters.The “Enemy” of My Dear Enemy is Byung-yoon (Ha Jung-woo), an old boyfriend that Hee-su (Jeon Do-yeon) tracks down at a horse track to get back the sizable loan she gave him a year ago, right before he dropped out of sight. Byung-yoon is a hustler and a charmer from the looks of things and he calmly promises to pay her back, but she’s having none of his promises. Angry, stiff, brittle and resistant to the charm he plies so effortlessly with everyone he meets, she sticks to him through the day as he scrounges up the money from friends and acquaintances (most of them women). “I know I’m a little immature, but I’m always sincere,” he confesses late in the day. By that time we believe him: He’s loyal, caring and utterly impractical, but he’s true blue: the hustler with the heart of gold who gives as much as he gets. When a haughty, arrogant bar girl snidely insults Hee-su, Byung-yoon jumps in to defend her. Not much develops between them, which is the film’s strength and weakness (honestly, not much develops in the film as a whole), and Lee never gives in to convention to transform the lazy day-trip into romance. He’s more interested in checking in on the folks that Byung-yoon knows all through social strata of Seoul, from corporate officer to unemployed single mother, and they are interesting company.Lee’s This Charming Girl played SIFF 2005 and is back as part of his “Emerging Master” tribute. Hey, SIFF, two films does not a retrospective make. That said, it’s well worth making an effort to see This Charming Girl, his assured and beautifully observed debut. Kim Ji-su is a young postal worker moving purely on auto-pilot since her beloved mother passed away (her memory haunts the apartment like a ghost) and she ran out on her honeymoon. She embraces familiarity like an emotional life jacket and might as well be absent from her obligatory lunches with co-workers. It’s a delicate study in alienation and isolation in the wake of loss. Not much happens in the story–an almost date and a bar pick-up just give her more opportunities to slip into ennui–but Lee creates a lovely texture of self-imposed loneliness and paralyzing sadness and suffuses it in melancholia. UPDATE Lee Yoon-Ki was originally announced to appear with both films, but he has dropped out at the last minute and will not be attending SIFF.My Dear Enemy Harvard Exit 6:30 p.m. Sun., May 24 and 1:30 p.m. Mon., May 25. This Charming Girl Harvard Exit 11 a.m. Mon., May 25.