By Arun Kumar
Featured in IMDb Critic Reviews
“Personal stories are boring. It’s boring to talk about
yourself all the time, isn’t it?” says so a character in the prolific South
Korean auteur Hong Sang-soo’s latest archetypal drama On the Beach at Night
Alone (2017). This self-deprecating line of dialogue playfully pokes at the undeviating
boundaries of Mr. Hong’s filmic universe, which could be defined as ‘achingly
personal’, unearthing different variations of the characters’ existential
malady. Oft compared with connoisseurs of personal cinema Eric Rohmer and Woody Allen, Hong Sang-soo ostensibly spontaneous narrative style, for better
and worse, focuses on the myriad possibilities of perception within our alleged simple,
quotidian life. On the Night at Alone is Mr. Hong’s 18th feature
film in his 21st year of film-making,
and barring few earlier works, the director has been remarkably consistent in
repeating a set of visual and thematic tropes, which nonetheless forges vigor
and profundity.
If closely scrutinized despite his penchant for repetitions, one could find interesting fluctuations
in Hong’s works over the years, especially in terms of mood. While the
director’s recent films saw a shift towards light-hearted and humorous notes,
On the Beach at Night Alone retains a melancholic, if not a slightly acerbic
tone. The narrative eschews Hong’s trademark split narrative and is replaced with
two asymmetrical acts, both acts shot by different cinematographers. In the
first twenty five minutes, the narrative depicts the autumnal sojourn of a young
Korean woman Young-hee (Kim Min-hee) at an unidentified
city in Germany. She spends time with an old friend Jee-young (Seo Young-hwa),
strolling through parks and shops, and riffing on desire, relationships,
uncertain future, etc. Jee-young, contained within the bubble of loneliness,
talks of her failed marriage and the maddening lack of desire. Her visiting
friend also seems to be afflicted by inner torment, but Young-hee’s beautiful
face better masks her emotional scars. Young-hee says her lover, a married man,
may soon pay her a visit. But it never happens.
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One of tender moments where Young-hee through the embrace of a flower she expresses her feelings of love and longing
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The second, longer part of the
narrative sees Young-hee drifting back to the chilly beach-side town of Gangneung,
situated on South Korea’s east coast. She meets old friends and has long,
liquor-soaked, delightfully frank conversations about feelings of love,
self-loathing and despair. There we learn that she is a renowned actress and
that her affair with a director has nearly ended her professional career. Every
gesture and lines delivered, as usual, appears spontaneous, which is truly a
testament to the precisely controlled direction of Hong Sang-soo. The funny
highlight of the film is Young-hee’s interaction with a buddy named Myung-soo (Jung Jae-young) at a coffeehouse. And, the firm
emotional highlight of the narrative is the actress’ drunken confrontation with
the director/ex-lover (Moon Sung-keun) which gracefully moves between
self-deprecation and self-parody.
Understanding the self-reflexive, Meta nature of the
narrative may help one appreciate the ineffably sad setting a little more.
Hong’s meditation on love in On the Beach at Night Alone is deeply personal,
considering the intensely publicized affair between the director and Kim
Min-hee (ever since they collaborated for ‘Right Now Wrong Then’ in 2015). Riled
by local media, the Hong and Kim came out earlier in the year to confirm the
speculations (he initiated divorce proceedings with his wife of thirty
years). Later, there were subsequent reports claiming that they’d ended their affair.“Why stir up such a fuss? People
must have had fun raking them over the coals……two people in love is immoral?”
says a character in the film, empathetic to the lovers’ plight. Later in the
dreamy conversation scene, the director character remarks, “I need to cast off
my regrets.” Although formally and structurally, the film isn’t Hong’s best work
(‘Virgin Stripped by her Bachelors’ & ‘On the Turning Gate’ are my
favorites), this kind of honest self-critique poses intriguing queries and may
delight the auteur’s fans. While Hong tries to exorcise his inner torments
through the actor film-making, his fastidious style also provides an
interesting study of our myopic view of love and the constant drift towards
self-entrapment.
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A scene with a extra-textual poignancy as director Hong Sang-soo lays bare his inner anguish to his leading lady/lover
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Hong Sang-soo has always been reluctant to discuss the
meaning of his work, its moral dimensions or about the origination of his
ideas. In one of his rarest interviews (to National Post) when asked about the
creative process, he coolly replies, “I only respond to what is given to me at
the time I set out to make one, such as actors, locations, weather, as well as
what I see, what I read, what I recall, and what I hear during the
pre-production and production period, with what I call “my best innocence.””
The words pretty much sums up the obscure yet poetic nature of his form and
content. With a switch to digital, Hong’s rate of working has escalated greatly
(released three films in 2017) yet his craftsmanship continues to devise
deceptively simple conversations and metaphorical representations that somehow
slowly digs deeper into our heart. In this film, couple of sequences was
memorable for me: tender gaze on Kim’s Young-hee when she smokes and sings
outside the cafe in the wintry day; and when Young-hee lays bare her emotional
pain that’s punctuated with reckless drunken behavior. Formally, the beach
proves to be a curious setting. Hong’s unglamorous shots of beach turn the
spacious setting into a circumscribed setting, only to elevate Young-hee’s
isolation. Director Hong once again employs mysterious, playful notes in the
narrative: for example, the mysterious abductor or the man at hotel balcony and
the stranger in the park. The other trademark element employed is the zooms used during long takes (unmotivated and at times seems intrusive). Kim Min-hee
has by now become adept at playing characters withholding dark emotional
undercurrents, occasionally erupting with casual ferocity. She makes
Young-hee’s longing for alleviation and evasion much more deeply affecting.
With “On the Beach at Night Alone” (100 minutes) celebrated ‘minimal
realist’ Hong Sang-soo blends his pet theme of existential disquiet with his
personal affairs to a much deeper degree than usual. The result is a part
insightful and part inept study of life’s uncertainty and futility of love.
On the Beach at Night Alone (2017) – Trailer
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