Sure,
there are exceptions, but by and large, people working in book publishing are
ragingly neurotic and they drink like fish. Could there be another film director
better suited to making a film set in a high-brow small press than Hong
Sang-soo? In this case, the publisher also happens to be an unrepentant adulterer.
Again, who better than Hong? News of his extramarital affair has scandalized
Korea, but it has not slowed Hong’s prolific output. He has two new films at
this year’s NYFF (how they missed out on Claire’s
Camera starring fest fave Isabelle Huppert is rather baffling). Hong dials
down the narrative gamesmanship in The
Day After (trailer
here),
the less uncomfortably awkward of his two Main Slates selections screening at
the 55th New York Film Festival.
Song
Ah-reum is the sort of thoughtful, responsible employee a boutique literary
house would be lucky to employ. Kim Bong-wan hired her because she was pretty.
He just let his former assistant go, because his wife Song Hae-joo was starting
to suspect they were having an affair, which they were. Unfortunately, Song
Hae-joo storms into the office to deliver the Dynasty power-slap to her rival on Song Ah-reum’s first day.
Understandably,
the new assistant is rather taken aback by the jealous wife’s torrent of abuse.
Kim tries to convince her to stay despite the drama, until his former
mistress-assistant Lee Chang-sook drops by to rekindle their affair. Since Song
Hae-joo has never seen Lee, they hatch a scheme to return the real mistress to
her former job, by pretending Song Ahreum really was the other woman, if she
will agree to leave after only one day. It is not a particularly well thought
out master-plan, but it evidently involves drinking a great deal of soju.
Even
by Hong’s standards, Day After is
small in scope, but it has a rarified air of sophistication and an unusually
sharp edge. Somewhat ironically, the unfairly accused Song is played by Kim
Min-hee, who has been absolutely pilloried in the Korean press after she and
Hong came out with their relationship. Seriously, think Pitt-Anniston-Jolie
raised to the power of fifty.
It
is a shame outside events will inevitably color people’s perception of Day After, because this really is one of
Kim’s finest performances. It is a wonderfully subtle and graceful turn.
Ironically, you would expect such a wise and forgiving portrayal to come at the
end of an affair rather than at the high point of media scrutiny.
As
usual, Hong regular Kwon Hae-hyo is a gently amusing bundle of anxieties and
hang-ups as the philandering Kim Bong-wan. Think of him as a Seinfeld character you could actually
spend time with, especially with the soju flowing. He and Kim Min-hee share
some wonderfully gawky scenes together. You could call it anti-chemistry, but
they still play off each other beautifully.
