6 Best Films by Has Increased After Three Years
I enjoy Hong Sang-soo’s films because they feel like peeking into someone’s very personal life. The dialogues and relaxed angles contribute to this feeling. Here are six of his films team UoH would like to recommend today.
Director Hong Sang-soo
Director Hong Sang-soo has been continuously invited to major film festivals and retrospectives around the world for nearly 20 years since his debut. He is one of the highly regarded Korean filmmakers, especially praised by Cahiers du Cinéma. “I’ve had a child, which is my film, and I need to set it on stage. Some parents dress their child in nice clothes, correct their mannerisms, and teach them behaviors that people will find cute. I want my child to grow up comfortably, so I tell them to just play outside, come up, speak as you think, and then go back down. Then the audience might prefer a child who speaks well and acts cute. Watching my child, some might think, ‘They don’t seem very prepared. Isn’t the parent being irresponsible?’ But I’m leaving the child to grow on its own. I think that’s the main difference.”
From an interview with Hong Sang-soo on Naver Cast
1. The Day a Pig Fell into the Well (돼지가 우물에 빠진 날) (1996)
The emergence of director Hong Sang-soo was a very fresh shock to the Korean film industry. This film was based on a novel. In the original novel, the story involves a love triangle between a novelist, a married woman, and a ticket seller who is infatuated with the novelist. In Hong Sang-soo’s film, however, a theater employee character is added. Through static camera movements and a dry, realistic tone, one can sense Hong Sang-soo’s cinematic world. The hypocrisy between the sexes is depicted as grotesque and selfish, much like a pig trapped in a well.
2. Tale of Cinema (극장전) (2005)
This is Hong Sang-soo’s sixth feature film. It is divided into two parts: the first part tells the story of a man who, after finishing the college entrance exam, coincidentally encounters his first love; the second part follows the protagonist after he watches a film in a theater, where, as if by coincidence, he encounters the female lead from the movie outside the theater. While the second part initially seems to mirror the first part, the relationship between the two halves becomes increasingly complex as the film progresses. This work is noted for marking the beginning of a serious examination of Hong Sang-soo’s film editing and structure.
3. Night And Day (밤과 낮) (2008)
This film boasts several unique features, including being the first of Hong Sang-soo’s films to be featured at the Berlin Film Festival and having scenes shot abroad. In the summer of 2007, a painter who is caught smoking marijuana flees to Paris. The life he encounters in Paris, as he seeks to avoid arrest, feels like an escape from reality. With little to do but wander the streets, he constantly thinks about his wife whom he left behind. However, in an effort to start anew, he meets Korean artists introduced by a guesthouse owner and tries to adapt to the unfamiliar city. The film portrays the protagonist’s dual life, connecting the nights of Seoul with the days of Paris.
4. HaHaHa (하하하) (2010)
This is Hong Sang-soo’s tenth feature film. The film tells the story of a summer in Tongyeong through the perspectives of two men. One man, who is contemplating immigrating to Canada, meets an older colleague and drinks makgeolli at the foot of Cheonggye Mountain. They discover that they both recently visited Tongyeong and share stories about their enjoyable experiences there over a glass of makgeolli. The use of close-ups, flashbacks, and other cinematic techniques that contrast the protagonists’ present and past is highly noteworthy.
5. Oki’s Movie (옥희의 영화) (2010)
This is Hong Sang-soo’s eleventh feature film, released in 2010, for which he wrote the script and directed. The film tells the story of a film student named Oki, who creates a movie about a young man and an older man she once dated. The film is structured around her experiences visiting Achasan (a hill located between Gwangjin-gu and Guri in South Korea) with each man, separated by a decade. The movie juxtaposes these experiences in different spaces on the hill, reflecting the emotional journey of one person.
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