Are you talking about Blu-ray or in general? The Korean DVD that is available at Yesasia has English subs.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.
Hong Sangsoo
- joshua
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Re: Hong Sangsoo
- zedz
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Re: Hong Sangsoo
In general. The Korean DVD only has English subs for the English dialogue, so it’s pretty useless!
- joshua
- Joined: Sat Jul 11, 2009 5:11 pm
Re: Hong Sangsoo
Wow! That is useless! Now that you say that, the vague memory of why I never picked this up is coming back to me.zedz wrote:In general. The Korean DVD only has English subs for the English dialogue, so it’s pretty useless!
- rockysds
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Re: Hong Sangsoo
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.
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Re: Hong Sangsoo
Did you perhaps misread the specs? This yesasia page for the Taiwanese disc lists only Chinese subs.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.
- rockysds
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Re: Hong Sangsoo
Yeah, I did. Thanks.
- Michael Kerpan
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Re: Hong Sangsoo
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.
- StevenJ0001
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Re: Hong Sangsoo
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.”zedz wrote:The Korean DVD only has English subs for the English dialogue, so it’s pretty useless!
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?
- zedz
- Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 7:24 pm
Re: Hong Sangsoo
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:StevenJ0001 wrote: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.”zedz wrote:The Korean DVD only has English subs for the English dialogue, so it’s pretty useless!
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?
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.
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.
- StevenJ0001
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Re: Hong Sangsoo
Bummer! Oh well, I guess it’s back to waiting for a better release. Thanks for the info!zedz wrote: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 structureStevenJ0001 wrote: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.”zedz wrote:The Korean DVD only has English subs for the English dialogue, so it’s pretty useless!
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?
- Michael Kerpan
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Re: Hong Sangsoo
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.
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- Joined: Thu Oct 20, 2005 9:34 am
Re: Hong Sangsoo
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"...
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"...
- Michael Kerpan
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Re: Hong Sangsoo
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.
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.
- Michael Kerpan
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Re: Hong Sangsoo
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...
- kuzine
- Joined: Tue Dec 13, 2005 9:37 am
Re: Hong Sangsoo
List is streaming this week (until Thursday) at Le Cinéma Club
- zedz
- Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 7:24 pm
Re: Hong Sangsoo
Thanks a lot! Apart from his latest, this is the only Hong film I've never seen.kuzine wrote: ↑Sat Sep 08, 2018 5:43 pmList is streaming this week (until Thursday) at Le Cinéma Club
- Mothravka
- Joined: Mon Oct 15, 2018 4:36 am
Re: Hong Sangsoo
Cinema Guild will release Hotel by the River (2018) on Blu-ray November 26.
https://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=25838
https://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=25838
- Mr Sheldrake
- Joined: Thu Jun 07, 2007 9:09 pm
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Re: Hong Sangsoo
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.
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.
- Michael Kerpan
- Spelling Bee Champeen
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Re: Hong Sangsoo
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.
- knives
- Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm
Re: Hong Sangsoo
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.
- Michael Kerpan
- Spelling Bee Champeen
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Re: Hong Sangsoo
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).
- knives
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Re: Hong Sangsoo
I actively disliked that one which effects my view.
- Michael Kerpan
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Re: Hong Sangsoo
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.
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Re: Hong Sangsoo
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.
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.
- Michael Kerpan
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Re: Hong Sangsoo
artfilmfan -- They don't really "philosophize" (or pretend to) -- they only ramble (often alcohol-soddenly).