Hong Double Feature
Like You Know It All Hong Sangsoo, 2009
The newest Hong film I've seen. This marks an attempt to re-introduce myself to his cinema. I had seen four of his films previously, and I don't think I got much out of them, to be honest. The only things I really registered was that they were about a bunch of Korean douchebags who got drunk and had awkward sexual encounters. This film does nothing to dispel such a notion. Except in this film, it's played as comedy. Which I don't think is the case in something like Kangwon Province, Woman is the Future of Man or Virgin. The film is about some film director of note who goes to be a judge at some random film festival. He gets there and all he does is drink with everyone around, leave women alone so they can be raped (this is played for laughter, lol) and fall asleep during the festival screenings. He's a guy who has nothing going on, really, so he makes up a bunch of stuff to feel petty about (little competitions and jealousies and stuff like that). All things considered, a roujinesque character if there ever was one. Which is to say, a perfectly ridiculous person. The bifurcated structure is back, once again, and the events of the first half get mirrored in the second. For what purpose? That's for some other person to parse out (I'm sure there is plenty of interesting stuff going on in Hong's structures and their callbacks and motifs and stuff, a whole book can be written about it). But the film is funny. So all is forgiven.
Turning Gate Hong Sangsoo, 2002
This, on the other hand, is all kinds of painful and sad. An out-of-work actor goes to some random city to hang out with an old friend. He then proceeds to hook up with the girl his best friend really likes. This makes things awkward for all involved. Because awkwardness is the natural state of the universe. Somewhere along the way, he hears the story of the turning gate, about some reincarnated guy who turns into a snake in order to stalk a princess. After the actor is done is done being a douchebag to this one girl, he goes somewhere else and sort of/kind of/not really acts out the myth, while trying to put the mack on some married lady. This half is all sad and pathetic, as the actor realizes that he knows the girl from somewhere, from some time that was better than this. There are chapter headings every once in a while that tell you more or less what's going to happen, more structural tricks from Hong. As the film progresses, the deep, deep hole inside of the main character becomes apparent and in a desperate attempt to regain what was once lost (or what he thought he had?), he just completely overcompensates and gets crazy and obsessive. Hong's male characters seem to be all selfish douchebags, who force other people into their own ruinous emotional states, just because. I could relate. and The rain washes it all away, of course. Or, at least, it makes you turn back.