the prolific and formidable Korean filmmaker HONG SANG-SOO

Nick Pinkerton on two of his latest releases (I saw The Day After last weekend at NYFF, thought it was one of his weaker efforts):

http://reverseshot.org/reviews/entry/2370/beach_day_after_hong_2

The Day After was mostly just really, really sad for me. I thought it was a bit like when a party rapper begins rapping about rehab. All the drinking and the flirting has been fun for, like, ten films in a row, and all of a sudden people are crying and breaking down, and it's not fun at all. I did like it, but I really want to see the other three he has made over the last year or so.

Really like to see something by him.

right now, wrong then is quite good and nimbly dodges all the usual pitfalls of its parallel-story hook

Caught TDA at TIFF, my first that I recall - it was nice enough but I get the impression it was not the most natural place to drop into his stuff

I adored Claire's Camera: 69 minutes of the quietest wit that blooms into an unexpected emotional climax.

I only now figured out that The Day After is named after the nuclear apocalypse movie. Aptly named, at that.

nice surprise to see there's a one off ldn screening of Claire's Camera next monday

loved Claire's Camera, curious which pre Right Now, Wrong Then films people would recommend?

Claire’s camera was great

Film of the year imo

Check out In Another Country.

I will if I can!

xp thanks! probs mine as well, a shame it doesn't seem to be getting a release over here

nice runtime

YES

I was talking about it with a bartender & he was like “does that even qualify as a film?”

The run time is a factor.

Still haven't had a chance to see Claire's Camera, or The Day After.

of the pre-RNWT films I really enjoyed Woman on the Beach

I think of what I've seen Right Now Wrong Then is my favorite though

thanks for the rec Dan, will check it out. really loved In Another Country, never enough talk about how good Huppert is at doing natural goofiness.

some of the best are hard to see i think

Tale of Cinema
Woman on the Beach
Hill of Freedom
Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors
Woman Is the Future of Man

and a very good 3-minute film called Lost in the Mountains. I am in full support of films of varying lengths.

sorry, that's a 31-minute film

thanks Morbs, will do some scouring

Doesn't the MPAA (for what that's worth) define 40 minutes as the minimum runtime for a feature?

watched On the Beach at Night Alone for a second time today, it really is pretty great. Min-hee Kim keeps getting better with each performance

the mysterious guy asking her for the time, carrying her off the beach, washing the windows, and always seen from a distance…I liked that he was a surreal element representing a potential fulfillment of her unconscious desire

in case it's of interest to anyone, london korean film fest are screening The Power of Kangwon Province & Hotel By The River one evening next month

Hotel By The River is a change of pace from the "middle-aged horndog wiped on soju" template; I liked it.

This site is surveying all of Hong's films:

http://inreviewonline.com/2018/10/17/hong-sangsoo-retro/

also enjoyed Hotel by the River, saw a lot of talk about it being sombre so was glad how funny it was (the wood chopping!). interesting to watch it directly after seeing, and loving, The Power of Kangwon Province, which looked beautiful on 35mm; put me in mind of Nick Pinkerton's line about it being 'a cinema of diminished expectations'.

haven't seen Grass but i think this might have the first vape in a Hong film

Hotel by the River opens in NY today

I just saw Claire’s Camera, wasn't expecting an Instax camera. Kim Min-hee makes me fall in love with her no matter what role she’s in. I really liked this film

best film of 2018, roll on the poll

another lkff double bill in london on nov 5th - the day the pig fell into the well and grass

https://www.filmlinc.org/films/yourself-and-yours/

alas Simon A finds it 'punishing'

https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/yourself-and-yours-movie-review-2020

Check out the disc for Grass if you can, the movie itself is not as good as some of the other recent ones, but it has a 2011 short called List that's phenomenal

I liked Yourself and Yours more than the newer black and white ones. it's definitely his most accessible 'comedy' of the last 5 years, maybe not his best. and I'd say Hotel by the River is the best of the recent run by some distance. he doesn't make many movies that are a good way in, and "you've got to watch 5 or 10 or 15 of them to really get it" is a tough sell. but Yourself and Yours is far from punishing, I'd say it'd win him some curious fans.

meant to say Hotel by the River is the most accessible drama of the recent run, but it's up there with RNWT.

Looks like Woman on the Beach is getting re-released in "virtual cinemas" next Friday. Maybe a new disc on the way? I was able to snag a library copy off eBay, it's one of his best, glad it'll be widely available soon.

these films make me think of lydia davis more than anything else

I cried watching The Woman Who Ran.

He's got another out now.

Apparently I just missed my chance to see it at MSPIFF. I regretfully hadn't paid attention this year, which is clearly as much the year of Hong Sangsoo as last year was the year of Ryusuke Hamaguchi.

Clarification: Missed my chance to see the newer one, In Front of Your Face.

The National Museum of Asian Art (formerly known as the Freer Gallery) has resumed in-person screenings with its annual Korean Film Festival (https://asia.si.edu/events-overview/films/). The programming will include In Front of Your Face and Introduction.

Tickets are free but you have to register online. Is anyone else going to any of these screenings?

I dunno...I'm beginning to think quantity has begun to outweigh quality.

Bunch of stuff on MUBI USA, some leaving soon.

don't know which are leaving, but think Right Now, Wrong Then and On the Beach At Night Alone are both great

Hills of Freedom leaving tomorrow, Woman on the Beach leaving later in the week.

FInished WotB. Still processing but was intrigued. Wonder which one I will watch next. Wonder if Morbius wrote anything long form about it.

I’ve got my eye on The Woman Who Ran.

Well, you know what I think.

actually, see them all

they are all interesting

you should watch The Day He Arrives (2011) and Right Now, Wrong Then (2015)

in retrospect On the Beach Alone at Night (2017) is still stuck in my mind, it was surreal in a way that was different for him

(On the Beach At Night Alone)

I think there is a film that he wrote and directed in which a woman says that she has had an abortion X times for the male protagonist. Why does the expression of affection (platonic or not) among Koreans seem so unnatural to me (horrible awful stereotype) and why is this comment made so casually in this film (as an indication of what)?

If I only have time to watch one of the two about to leave MUBI, those being VIRGIN STRIPPED BARE BY HER BACHELORS and THE POWER OF KANGWON PROVINCE, which is preferable?

The Power of Kangwon Province

Yes. Kangwon Province by a mile.

Just saw In Front of Your Face, my first foray into this guys work. It sure helps to be a Rohmer fan.

https://silver.afi.com/Browsing/EventsAndExperiences/EventDetails/0000000121

Tales of Cinema: The World of Hong Sangsoo (May 5-June 10) has just started (screenings at AFI Silver, the National Gallery of Art, and the National Museum of Asian Art). I'm not sure if I'm going to any of these, but thought others might be interested.

Anyone watched A Traveler's Needs?

Yeah, I saw it at the Berlinale last year. It might be the best of the ones he has done with Huppert, but as always the language thing makes everything kinda slow. But it has some very good things, which is more than I'll say for In Another Country.

yeah, I thought it was fine but far from hong's best... even if we're just talking about movies he released in 2024. I _loved_ by the stream!

I quite liked it. Huppert calmly taking in as these people say these inane things because she makes them nervous tickled my funny bone.

Oooh -- my library has The Novelist's Film

Now THAT is a great film :)

Never seen any of this guy's films. What would be a good one to start with?

Everyone I know hates their first Hong Sang-soo... In the one I saw, the boom mic kept falling into the frame. His films are messy, repetitive, weird, slow, cheap, but if you fall for them then it's a world you want more of. And twice a year, you'll get it. There's really nothing like Hong Sang-soo in modern film.

But on a more serious note, perhaps Right Then, Wrong Now, and then moving on through what he made the next couple of years. Perhaps until Grass. There's a pretty clear emotional arc in in that series of films, as he himself went through a very turbulent time.

Thank you! I'll hunt that one down.

My fave part of Traveller's Needs was the mum's consternation at her son being so under the spell of this French woman eating only bread and salads. She then proceeds to cook him some kimchi jigae. Common sense at last!

Claire's Camera is the one I've had the most success recommending; it's also my favorite.

Enjoyed A Traveler’s Needs when I saw it at Lincoln Center last year thanks to MUBI GO, still have yet to see the other two.

_right now, wrong then_ is a great intro but wanted to give a special shout out to _a tale of cinema_, which is easily my fave early hong (that i've seen). the production values are a little higher, the pacing is a little faster, there are sex scenes (!!), and my personal fave part, it has a fantastic score by an outside collaborator

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rF_14XVneYc

oops, wrong link!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSwQfuED7K4