Wow. This is the most straightforward Hong film since The Day He Arrives, it has a two-part structure and occasional repetitive echoes, but it remains focused and direct in a manner he rarely goes for. The only distancing effect here is the one the audience brings with their likely awareness of the Korean tabloid coverage of Hong and Kim romance. As usual with Hong he is operating into the dual modes of his careful attention to the small time minutiae of his character’s interactions and the large demonstrative feeble-like quality of the tale his editing brings together about them. Here that means Kim Min-hee character has an inevitable destination on the beach at night alone as the title promises. Her…

[8]

"The man who asked the time, later on the window-washer...these guys popping up. Do you think that's Death?"

This was a question posed to me by The Perspicacious Shelly Kraicer, who has had the good fortune to see Hong's latest film twice. It's highly plausible, especially given the way the window-washer is just hovering on the balcony toward the end of the film, his task completed but staring into the hotel room like a creep. But what's more significant than the particular details is the fact that this is a question that can be legitimately posed in a Hong film. The man who for so long has drawn comparisons to Rohmer is now possibly incorporating elements of Buñuel or…

"Where's love? It's not even visible. You need to see it in order to search for it."

I actually watch this movie 5 times over the years, I just hesitated to write a review about it, because I didn't know how to put it into words my feelings about him, but the film explores the power dynamics between colleagues, acquaintances, friendship and gossip. This is the beauty and strength of Hong Sang-soo’s filmmaking; he gently moves the viewer into witnessing basic everyday occurrences and conversations. We witness the intricacies that take place during cigarette breaks, long drunken dinners, awkward cups of coffee, walks in a park, visiting tourist attractions, lonely film festivals and cold grey walks on the beach at…

Bem a cara do Hong Sang-soo fazer o filme mais impiedoso da sua carreira justamente quando é pra tratar sem muitos rodeios da própria vida pessoal. Não que todos os outros já não fossem em algum nível sobre isso, mas aqui parece que o próprio espírito de Maurice Pialat deu uma assombrada gostosa no cara. Mesmo pra quem não tá ligado no relacionamento dele com a Kim Min-hee é um dos filmes mais desoladores nessa relação entre romance e isolamento, nessa culpa implícita que acaba destruindo todo círculo social possível. Tem uma desesperança tão franca, tão não hesitante e livre de qualquer projeção distanciadora que a única coisa que sobra é uma morbidez muito bruta. A própria figura que persegue…

60/100

A.V. Club review. Not particularly effective for me as cinema à clef—maybe I just know too much about Hong's personal life at the moment, but this film's uncharacteristic emotional directness feels vaguely secondhand, especially when his surrogate finally shows up. (I'd hoped that we'd never see the director at all, that he'd remain entirely past-tense.) But I'm immensely excited to see Hong experimenting with...I'm not sure whether to call it surrealism or absurdism or just inexplicable weirdness. It blows my mind that some critics (e.g. the usually perspicacious Guy Lodge in Variety) failed even to mention the recurring presence of a male figure wearing a dark coat and knit cap, who's first seen asking Young-hee for the time ("You…

Uma mulher em sua influência.

Queria aumentar a nota nessa revisão mas eu já tinha dado cinco estrelas antes. Cada vez tenho mais certeza que é um dos maiores filmes sobre estar vivo. Tem uma crueldade na forma como é direto, mas é um cruel inerente ao conflito e a dor, não uma celebração da angústia. Ao mesmo tempo, o homem-alegórico da história toda, que poderia ser uma metáfora simples, se impõe mais como um dispositivo de estranheza: como é desconfortável aquela presença na tela. O Hong faz um jogo bem óbvio, primário até, entre os momentos de catarse, sentimentos aflorados, e os momentos de isolamento ou paz da protagonista. Mas é tudo é tão bem colocado em cena e…

for a role that starts off so (i suspect intentionally) stilted, kim min-hee ends up a really fascinating center for this film. by ON THE BEACH’s end, she’s both a prism (reflecting conversations, thoughts, and other characters’ selves) but also a fulcrum - the narrative isn’t symmetric but there’s a real measured call-and-response. it is most apparent in the dinner scene in gangneung, a scenario that practically devolves (how did he do that!) into a reunion - if you squint, you might be able to see everyone else’s magnifying glasses during the dissection.

to me the film is then about that ensuing struggle for agency. you can kinda see in how younghee relentlessly harps on that self-characterization as a “bomb”,…