Hong
Sang-soo is often dubbed the “Korean Woody Allen,” but that superficial
comparison was never really that apt, until now. Hong’s extramarital
relationship with thirty-something actress Kim Min-hee (star of Right Now, Wrong Then) is nowhere near
as problematic as Allen carrying on with his long-term girlfriend’s adopted
daughter, but the resulting Korean scandal has been even more intense. Adding
fuel to the fire, Hong finally acknowledged the relationship at a press
conference for one of his three most recent films, in which an actress played
by Kim herself deals with the fallout resulting from her affair with a
prestigious director. You could think of it as Hong’s Husbands and Wives. Regardless, the meta-ness is often downright
uncomfortable in On the Beach at Night
Alone (trailer
here), which screens as a Main Slate selection
of the 55th New York Film Festival.
Even
though she is still young, Young-hee’s acting career was already in the
doldrums before her affair with Sang-won. To avoid the media feeding frenzy,
she first visits her friend Jee-young in Hamburg and then tries laying low in
her provincial small town. She walks incessantly, while her friends do their
best to distract her. Yet, she compulsively ruminates on her scandal, yearning
to see him again, yet deeply regretting their affair.
Throw
in a prodigious amount of drinking and you pretty much have Hong’s film in a
nutshell. Of course, there is more to it than that. However, much like The Day After, Beach, lacks the narrative gamesmanship that has distinguished Hong’s
best recent films. Arguably, there is still a bifurcated structure, split
between Hamburg and Korea, but it follows in strict chronological order.
Kim
is quite arresting playing a slightly unstable analog of herself, but her
exquisitely sensitive performance in The
Day After is even more accomplished and arresting. Arguably, the finest
work in the film comes from Seo Young-hwa, who charms and disarms as the
complex but defiantly independent Jee-young. Kwon Hae-hyo exemplifies an exemplary
Hong supporting character as Young-hee’s shaggy haired, hard-drinking art-house
programmer crony Chun-woo. As if we needed additional layers of irony,
actor-turned-politician Moon Sung-keun memorably appears as the adulterous
Sang-won.
