THE DAY HE ARRIVES

Seong-jun may have arrived, but he actually has nowhere to go. This film-director is back in Seoul after he suddenly retreated to live in a remote country town the moment the last of his four movies were finished.  He’s here for a few days to hang out with his friend Young-ho a film critic but while he waits for him he walks aimlessly in the narrow city streets and has a series of un-related encounters.  One is with an actress who he once worked with and whom he now avoids, and another with three film students with whom he gets very drunk and pally with before suddenly unexpectedly flipping out and running off into the night screaming.

His day ends at the home of his former lover Kyung-jin who reluctantly lets him in, and they take turns crying and declaring their love for each other, but next morning as he leaves Seong-jun makes her agree that they cannot see each other ever again.

Later that day he finally meets up with his friend and they are joined by an actor who was Seong-jun’s first leading man who still bears a grudge that he was dumped from the next movie.  That seems to disappear in another round of interminable drinking which is continued in another bar.  There Seong-jun falls for the female owner, and once the others get drunk and leave, they hook up for the night.

And then we have a Korean Groundhog Day situation. He wanders around town aimlessly, bumps into the actress again, spots the film-students then ends up at the same bar with his same friends and although initially he ignores the owner he later sneaks back and they spend the night together. Next morning they say their goodbyes as Seong-jun makes her agree that they can never meet ever again.

And that’s that.  Sort of.  I will confess that the movie both confused me but also had me so entranced that I so wanted to see how it would play out.  And even when it ended suddenly almost in mid-sentence I was still not disappointed.  And I’m not sure why. Very appropriately it was shot in black and white which seemed to add to the starkness of the reality of the whole unspoken sub-plot.  And as I relive the experience now in writing this I remember aspects that I certainly couldn’t explain at all, like the fact that the ex-lover and the bar owner are played by the same actress!  This is definitely one movie that I want to  watch again to see if I can either fathom out what it all really meant, and why I liked it so much

Written and directed by prolific filmmaker Sang-soo Hong whose work has picked up five Nominations at Cannes Film Festival over the years, even winning once.  His next movie ‘In Another Country’ starring Isabelle Hupert is already in some art-houses now, and will definitely be added to my watchlist now.

Available from Amazon

★★★★★★★★