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★★★½☆
26 October 2017
A movie review of THE DAY AFTER. |
“You’ve got a girl, don’t you?” Song Haejoo (Cho Yunhee)
Talk about prolific. Director Hong Sang-soo has three feature films in 2017. The first premiered at the Berlin Film Festival, and the second two at Cannes. Not bad! He continually catalogues male ineptness/cruelty in romantic relationships, in seemingly endless permutations. By challenging narrative conventions, and changing up the nature of storytelling, Hong Sang-soo keeps the audience engaged. Yes, his films tend to blur together, but one is still impressed by the movies’ thoughtful pessimism.
The men in his work leave a trail of emotional destruction, especially if they are in positions of power. Hong Sang-soo’s oeuvre shows society’s gender inequalities and double standards. THE DAY AFTER is no different. Instead of the his usual film director/lecturer protagonist, Hong Sang-soo has moved the setting to book publishing and shot in black and white. The monochrome works, somehow immersing us more than had it been in colour.
Talk about prolific. Director Hong Sang-soo has three feature films in 2017. The first premiered at the Berlin Film Festival, and the second two at Cannes. Not bad! He continually catalogues male ineptness/cruelty in romantic relationships, in seemingly endless permutations. By challenging narrative conventions, and changing up the nature of storytelling, Hong Sang-soo keeps the audience engaged. Yes, his films tend to blur together, but one is still impressed by the movies’ thoughtful pessimism.
The men in his work leave a trail of emotional destruction, especially if they are in positions of power. Hong Sang-soo’s oeuvre shows society’s gender inequalities and double standards. THE DAY AFTER is no different. Instead of the his usual film director/lecturer protagonist, Hong Sang-soo has moved the setting to book publishing and shot in black and white. The monochrome works, somehow immersing us more than had it been in colour.
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Conceited Bongwan (Kwon Haehyo), head of a tiny publishing house, is immediately confronted by wife Haejoo (Cho Yunhee) at breakfast. She suspects that he has a lover. “Why don’t you speak?” Haejoo demands. (Perhaps an in-joke for Hong Sang-soo fans? His loquacious characters’ verbal outpourings usually get them into deeper trouble.) Haejoo is wrong and right. He had a lover, former employee, Changsook (Kim Saebyuk), but Changsook has recently dumped him. Weaselly Bongwan of course denies any offence.
Kang Publishing House consists of two people – how does it even exist with such a small team? Bongwan is also a literary critic. When reviewers appear in movies, they rarely come off well; see this year’s WILD MOUSE or LADY IN THE WATER (2006). (Why do some filmmakers hate us? Never mind, no need to answer.)
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Bereft at Changsook’s departure, new employee Areum (Kim Minhee) arrives at the office for her first day. Bongwan’s line of personal enquiry is inappropriate and cringe-inducing, covering topics ranging from roommates (creepy) to cancer in relatives (insensitive). Areum gives as good as she gets, asking Bongwan a brutal, existential question, “Why do you live?” She is smart and intellectually aggressive. More of this in cinema please!
We have to concentrate on the narrative structure. The audience is not talked down to. Set over one day, with flashbacks and a coda, a 24-hour time constraint forces the filmmaker to be leaner than his recent work. Relationship carnage inevitably ensues.
Hong Sang-soo changes things up again. Areum here is his most perceptive character to date.
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