Hong Sangsoo

Discussion and info on people in film, ranging from directors to actors to cinematographers to writers.
Post Reply
Message
Author
User avatar
joshua
Joined: Sat Jul 11, 2009 5:11 pm

Re: Hong Sangsoo

#251 Post by joshua » Tue Oct 10, 2017 9:33 pm

zedz wrote:Can they pick up Hill of Freedom while they're at it and give it a proper English-friendly release? It's the only Hong feature lacking one at this point.
Are you talking about Blu-ray or in general? The Korean DVD that is available at Yesasia has English subs.

User avatar
zedz
Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 7:24 pm

Re: Hong Sangsoo

#252 Post by zedz » Tue Oct 10, 2017 10:10 pm

In general. The Korean DVD only has English subs for the English dialogue, so it’s pretty useless!

User avatar
joshua
Joined: Sat Jul 11, 2009 5:11 pm

Re: Hong Sangsoo

#253 Post by joshua » Wed Oct 11, 2017 3:52 am

zedz wrote:In general. The Korean DVD only has English subs for the English dialogue, so it’s pretty useless!
Wow! That is useless! Now that you say that, the vague memory of why I never picked this up is coming back to me.

User avatar
rockysds
Joined: Wed May 19, 2010 11:25 am
Location: Denmark

Re: Hong Sangsoo

#254 Post by rockysds » Sun Oct 22, 2017 1:43 pm

Does anyone know the subtitle situation on the Taiwanese dvd of Hill of Freedom? Listed as having English subs on YesAsia, but I'm assuming it could be the same as with the Korean disc.

yoshimori
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 2:03 am
Location: LA CA

Re: Hong Sangsoo

#255 Post by yoshimori » Sun Oct 22, 2017 7:13 pm

rockysds wrote:Does anyone know the subtitle situation on the Taiwanese dvd of Hill of Freedom? Listed as having English subs on YesAsia, but I'm assuming it could be the same as with the Korean disc.
Did you perhaps misread the specs? This yesasia page for the Taiwanese disc lists only Chinese subs.

User avatar
rockysds
Joined: Wed May 19, 2010 11:25 am
Location: Denmark

Re: Hong Sangsoo

#256 Post by rockysds » Mon Oct 23, 2017 9:22 am

Yeah, I did. Thanks.

User avatar
Michael Kerpan
Spelling Bee Champeen
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 1:20 pm
Location: New England
Contact:

Re: Hong Sangsoo

#257 Post by Michael Kerpan » Fri Jan 12, 2018 11:19 pm

Yourself and Yours (seen on the K Blu-Ray) is almost surely Hong's most charming and sweet-natured film to date. Lots of the reviews talk about the heroine having possible doppelgangers -- which didn't seem to be the case to me. Others mention the film's link to Bunuel's Obscure Object of Desire -- which I do see, albeit only at a very abstract level (albeit handle in an utterly different manner). No one seems to drink soju in this (even though the heroine's alleged over-drinking is an important plot point) -- and no one throws up (possibly a first for a Hong film). No extras other than a trailer (and a booklet), the feature is subbed (accurately enough, so far as I can tell). While unmistakably a Hong film, this really did not _feel_ like any previous film by him. So much for the claim that he just makes the same film over and over. ;-)

User avatar
StevenJ0001
Joined: Mon May 05, 2008 12:02 pm
Location: Los Angeles

Re: Hong Sangsoo

#258 Post by StevenJ0001 » Mon Jan 15, 2018 1:52 pm

zedz wrote:The Korean DVD only has English subs for the English dialogue, so it’s pretty useless!
The YesAsia listing for Hill of Freedom states: “Note: This film is shot mostly in English with some Korean. The Korean dialogue is not English subtitled.”

Can anyone who has seen the film confirm how much Korean dialogue there is? Would I be able to follow the film without understanding Korean?

User avatar
zedz
Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 7:24 pm

Re: Hong Sangsoo

#259 Post by zedz » Mon Jan 15, 2018 3:07 pm

StevenJ0001 wrote:
zedz wrote:The Korean DVD only has English subs for the English dialogue, so it’s pretty useless!
The YesAsia listing for Hill of Freedom states: “Note: This film is shot mostly in English with some Korean. The Korean dialogue is not English subtitled.”

Can anyone who has seen the film confirm how much Korean dialogue there is? Would I be able to follow the film without understanding Korean?
It's mostly English (maybe 3/4?), but the film doesn't work if you don't understand the Korean dialogue because of its unique structure:
SpoilerShow
A woman returns home from an overseas trip to find a bunch of letters left for her by an English-speaking acquaintance who just dropped into her hometown to hook up with her and hung around for a while forlornly leaving letters for her in her absence. On her way home, she drops the bundle of undated letters and has to gather them up in random order (and we're aware, but she is not, that at least one letter in overlooked).

The rest of the film is her reading the letters, and the events in them playing out for us. But the order of events is scrambled, and the audience has to attempt to reconstruct the correct order (and speculate about whatever might have happened in the missing letter, and where that lacuna falls in the reconstructed narrative).

It's a tremendously enjoyable, and typically wry, puzzle film, to which there may be multiple solutions, but all that reconstructive work on our part relies heavily on parsing subtle clues in the fragmented epistolary narratives (e.g. how well does the writer know a certain dog at a certain cafe at different times), and a lot of those clues, along with most of the framing story, come from the Korean dialogue. The visitor's letters and dialogue are all in English, and because he doesn't understand Korean the people he encounters try to speak English to him, but part of the point of the film is how much he misses because of the language barrier.

User avatar
StevenJ0001
Joined: Mon May 05, 2008 12:02 pm
Location: Los Angeles

Re: Hong Sangsoo

#260 Post by StevenJ0001 » Mon Jan 15, 2018 4:21 pm

zedz wrote:
StevenJ0001 wrote:
zedz wrote:The Korean DVD only has English subs for the English dialogue, so it’s pretty useless!
The YesAsia listing for Hill of Freedom states: “Note: This film is shot mostly in English with some Korean. The Korean dialogue is not English subtitled.”

Can anyone who has seen the film confirm how much Korean dialogue there is? Would I be able to follow the film without understanding Korean?
It's mostly English (maybe 3/4?), but the film doesn't work if you don't understand the Korean dialogue because of its unique structure
Bummer! Oh well, I guess it’s back to waiting for a better release. Thanks for the info!

User avatar
Michael Kerpan
Spelling Bee Champeen
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 1:20 pm
Location: New England
Contact:

Re: Hong Sangsoo

#261 Post by Michael Kerpan » Mon Jan 15, 2018 4:48 pm

On the Beach at Night Alone (2017) - Coming after the mostly unusually gentle (and positive) Yourself and Yours, Hong's next film is atypically subdued -- and female-centric. There is no real male lead, and the two main supporting characters (in terms of screen time) are female. It is also one of Hong's saddest films overall (though sadness is not infrequent in his mostly comedic output). As in Tale of Cinema, we have a rather abrupt transition from a part one to a part two -- in this case a move from a trip to wintry Germany to a heroine returned to an almost as wintry Korea. KIM Min-hee is at the center of this film for almost every minute -- as a love-damaged and rather distraught actress who has been involved with a (married) director (reflecting aspects of her actual relationship with Hong). Another impressive (and distinctive) offering by Hong. The Korean Blu-Ray is subbed and has no extras other than a trailer.

Rupert Pupkin
Joined: Thu Oct 20, 2005 9:34 am

Re: Hong Sangsoo

#262 Post by Rupert Pupkin » Tue Jan 16, 2018 1:19 am

Michael Kerpan wrote:On the Beach at Night Alone (2017) - Coming after the mostly unusually gentle (and positive) Yourself and Yours, Hong's next film is atypically subdued -- and female-centric. There is no real male lead, and the two main supporting characters (in terms of screen time) are female. It is also one of Hong's saddest films overall (though sadness is not infrequent in his mostly comedic output). As in Tale of Cinema, we have a rather abrupt transition from a part one to a part two -- in this case a move from a trip to wintry Germany to a heroine returned to an almost as wintry Korea. KIM Min-hee is at the center of this film for almost every minute -- as a love-damaged and rather distraught actress who has been involved with a (married) director (reflecting aspects of her actual relationship with Hong). Another impressive (and distinctive) offering by Hong. The Korean Blu-Ray is subbed and has no extras other than a trailer.
SpoilerShow
how do you interpret the very last frame of part 1 (the scene at the beach at night). It looks like "the cineast" kidnap her (she fainted?) and carries her on his shoulder...
I was not sure...
There's a symetry : photography/frames/places (beach of course) with parts 1 - 2 : all dialogues from part 1 are about denying love which can't be "appropriate" in the real life; and renouncing to love and preferring to die to go away with it so that it can be here forever. All the dialogue in part 1 are about diseases, and she explains her desire to die and "freeze" this love story. The second part is more explicit : at the table "the man" explain clearly that he is deeply marked forever with this love and he almost says during the conversation at the table that he wants to die to keep this love forever.
If this fugitive plan on at the end of the beach on part 1 is what I think I saw, then this could be an happy end...
He often used like in part 2 when she sleeps near the beach the "fainted"/dreaming sequence like with Isabelle Huppert "In Another Country"...

User avatar
Michael Kerpan
Spelling Bee Champeen
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 1:20 pm
Location: New England
Contact:

Re: Hong Sangsoo

#263 Post by Michael Kerpan » Tue Jan 16, 2018 10:43 am

SpoilerShow
Apparently she is "carried off" by the weird guy who keeps reappearing throughout part 1,
asking for time, cleaning window frantically, etc. Not sure, what the significance of this, but personally would vote for it as a surrealist touch -- not anything "real". I tend to think the dramatic scene between the actress and the director in part 2 is all just a dream -- which links this film a bit to the preceding one -- where "wish dreams" also were featured.

User avatar
Michael Kerpan
Spelling Bee Champeen
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 1:20 pm
Location: New England
Contact:

Re: Hong Sangsoo

#264 Post by Michael Kerpan » Sun Apr 15, 2018 8:34 pm

Claire's Camera finally made it to Cambridge for 3 days (thanks, Brattle Theatre). It really was delightful. Huppert and KIM Minhee were both excellent (as was everyone else in the cast). Huppert's character was loopy and funny. Lots of local color in the Cannes setting. The film also featured a rather lacerating (albeit fictionalized) portrayal of Hong himself (possibly his harshest ever). Looking forward to a BluRay release ASAP...

User avatar
kuzine
Joined: Tue Dec 13, 2005 9:37 am

Re: Hong Sangsoo

#265 Post by kuzine » Sat Sep 08, 2018 5:43 pm

List is streaming this week (until Thursday) at Le Cinéma Club

User avatar
zedz
Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 7:24 pm

Re: Hong Sangsoo

#266 Post by zedz » Sun Sep 09, 2018 3:57 pm

kuzine wrote:
Sat Sep 08, 2018 5:43 pm
List is streaming this week (until Thursday) at Le Cinéma Club
Thanks a lot! Apart from his latest, this is the only Hong film I've never seen.

User avatar
Mothravka
Joined: Mon Oct 15, 2018 4:36 am

Re: Hong Sangsoo

#267 Post by Mothravka » Wed Oct 09, 2019 5:11 pm

Cinema Guild will release Hotel by the River (2018) on Blu-ray November 26.

https://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=25838

User avatar
Mr Sheldrake
Joined: Thu Jun 07, 2007 9:09 pm
Location: Jersey burbs exit 4

Re: Hong Sangsoo

#268 Post by Mr Sheldrake » Sat Feb 08, 2020 6:56 am

Hotel by the River

Hong confronts mortality head on in the character of an aging poet who’s feeling premonitions of his death. There’s a beautiful scene with his two sons (he has been an inattentive father) who he has called to the hotel he is staying in, an urge to see them one more time. He has them write their names in Chinese characters and then eloquently parses them as if they were poems, much to his sons astonishment.

The poet is mesmerized by two fellow female guests he sees wandering outside framed in the magical aura of freshly fallen snow. In a companion scene to the above he reads them the poem they have inspired. Hong’s minimalism and languid style can sometimes obscure the depth of these moments but fortunately their poignancy lingers on.

Currently streaming on kanopy in the US.
Last edited by Mr Sheldrake on Sat Feb 08, 2020 1:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
Michael Kerpan
Spelling Bee Champeen
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 1:20 pm
Location: New England
Contact:

Re: Hong Sangsoo

#269 Post by Michael Kerpan » Sat Feb 08, 2020 1:30 pm

I got the Cinema Guild BluRay of Hotel by the River -- it looks fine (as far as I could tell). I liked the movie a lot. It continues on in the melancholic vein of several of his more recent films (not that there isn't also a fair amount of humor). Seemed pretty different overall (structurally and plot-wise) from any previous film. Then again, I've never felt he "keeps making the same film over and over" as some critics like to claim.

User avatar
knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

Re: Hong Sangsoo

#270 Post by knives » Sat Feb 08, 2020 8:50 pm

I just watched it as well. I didn't like it too much at first, but it's stayed with me a lot longer than most of Hong's. It's definitely his saddest, but I also think its one of his most honest and more clearly communicated. It's a definite grower.

User avatar
Michael Kerpan
Spelling Bee Champeen
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 1:20 pm
Location: New England
Contact:

Re: Hong Sangsoo

#271 Post by Michael Kerpan » Sat Feb 08, 2020 11:24 pm

Is it sadder than "On the Beach at Night Alone"? I think they are both pretty sad -- albeit in different ways. I watched this twice (already) -- and thought it got even better with re-viewing (and doesn't fade away in memory very easily).

User avatar
knives
Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm

Re: Hong Sangsoo

#272 Post by knives » Sat Feb 08, 2020 11:32 pm

I actively disliked that one which effects my view.

User avatar
Michael Kerpan
Spelling Bee Champeen
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 1:20 pm
Location: New England
Contact:

Re: Hong Sangsoo

#273 Post by Michael Kerpan » Sat Feb 08, 2020 11:52 pm

I find OtBaNA harder to pin down than most of Hong's films. Not sure if this is a flaw or (ultimately) a positive aspect. I have yet to watch a Hong film I actively disliked. ;-)

artfilmfan
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 9:11 pm

Re: Hong Sangsoo

#274 Post by artfilmfan » Sun Feb 09, 2020 10:42 am

Michael, I’m surprised that none of the characters in Hong’s films so far has bothered you the way those characters in Rohmer’s Pauline at the Beach do. ;)

Thanks for the report on Hotel by the River. I might get the Blu ray soon.
Last edited by artfilmfan on Sun Feb 09, 2020 10:56 am, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
Michael Kerpan
Spelling Bee Champeen
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 1:20 pm
Location: New England
Contact:

Re: Hong Sangsoo

#275 Post by Michael Kerpan » Sun Feb 09, 2020 10:56 am

artfilmfan -- They don't really "philosophize" (or pretend to) -- they only ramble (often alcohol-soddenly). ;-)

Post Reply