In this, his eighth film, South Korean filmmaker Hong Sang-soo once again discourses on the frustrations, desires and self-reflections of today’s older generation, while relinquishing his classic narrative system of duplicating events. Instead, the film follows the fortunes of a dispossessed Korean in Paris through a free-form, journal-like episodic structure.
While the film deals with a Korean painter who has escaped to Paris on the run from the law, director Hong Sang-soo gives audiences nothing of what the premise might suggest. His image of the legendary metropolis is limited to the standard alleyways and deliberately neglects the appeal of the city’s salient features. Likewise, the story of the main hero itself includes neither the existential discourse of harrowed artists nor extreme situations. As is typical of the world-renowned South Korean filmmaker, he concentrates the camera’s perspective on the everyday, meaningless episodes of his characters’ lives in scenes built around minimalism. The strictly constructed, almost mathematically precise system of narration, characteristic of the director’s previous films, is substituted here with the seemingly looser structure of diary entries. In spite of all the formal changes, also evident in the shooting technique, the director remains faithful to his focus on reflecting frustration and lust in partnerships of the modern adult generation.
145 min / Color, 35 mm
Director Hong Sangsoo
/ Screenplay Hong Sang-soo
/ Dir. of Photography Kim Hoonkwang
/ Music Jeong Yongjin
/ Editor Hahm Sungwon
/ Producer Oh Jungwan
/ Production bom Film Productions
/ Cast Kim Youngho, Park Eunhye, Hwang Sujung, Kee Joobong, Kim Youjin
/ Contact bom Film Productions, Urban Distribution International
www: www.umedia.fr
Hong Sang-soo (b. 1960, Seoul) joined the group of Asian filmmakers regularly featured at international festivals with his outstanding debut The Day a Pig Fell into the Well (Daijiga umule pajinnal, 1996). Hong’s films are characterised by a minimalistic style and particularly by a specific narrative structure, where seemingly everyday events are repeated or swapped around. Contrasting two events that are essentially identical but, at the same time, differ in fundamental ways, gives the audience the leeway for their own reflection on the characters and their fortunes. Visitors to KVIFF have had the opportunity to see the variability and expediency of this method for themselves in the films The Power of Kangwon Province (Kangwondo eui him, 1998) and Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors (Oh! Soo-jung, 2000) presented at the KVIFF in 2000. He also made Tale of Cinema (Geuk jang jeon, 2005).
bom Film Productions
3fl. Yoohyun bldg., 21-16 Chungdam-2dong, Gangnam-gu, 135 950, Seoul
Republic of Korea
Phone: +82 2 344 561 96
Fax: +82 2 344 561 92
E-mail: [email protected]
Urban Distribution International
14, rue du 18 Août, 93100, Montreuil
France
Phone: +33 148 704 656
Fax: +33 149 720 421
E-mail: [email protected]
Virginie Devesa
Sales Agent
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