Match Cut Directors Consensus - Hong Sang-soo

[dreamdead]

Welcome to a week of ironical and often studied take on the male psyche, seen through Hong Sang-soo's lens. Can we get at least 20 posts in this thread? It'll be exciting to find out.

http://www.pardo.ch/jahia/webdav/site/pardo08/shared/immagini/giurie-2009/giurie.jpg

The Day a Pig Fell Into the Well (1996)
The Power of Kangwon Province (1998)
Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors (2000)
Turning Gate (2002)
Woman is the Future of Man (2004)
Tale of Cinema (2005)
Woman on the Beach (2006)
Night and Day (2008)
Like You Know It All (2009)
Ha Ha Ha (2010)

[Boner M]

The Power of Kangwon Province - 5.5
Woman on the Beach - 8
Night and Day - 6.5

[Raiders]

Turning Gate (2002) 7.5

No good reason I haven't seen more.

[thefourthwall]

Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors (2000) - 8
Turning Gate (2002) -- 8
Tale of Cinema (2005) -- 8.5
Woman on the Beach (2006) -- 7

Hoping to get to Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors before the week is out. Incidentally, Turning Gate is one of the very first movies dreamdead and I watched together; we held hands for the first time.

[soitgoes...]

Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors - 8.0

[dreamdead]

The Power of Kangwon Province (1998) - 6
Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors (2000) - 8
Turning Gate (2002) - 7
Woman is the Future of Man (2004) - 6
Tale of Cinema (2005) - 9
Woman on the Beach (2006) - 8

[MacGuffin]

Turning Gate - 7

[baby doll]

Night and Day (2008) [3]

Yeah, I know.

[Derek]

The Day a Pig Fell Down a Well - 6.0 (but could go up if I see it with less laughably horrid subtitles)
The Power of Kangwon Province - 6.5
Virgin Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors - 8.5
Turning Gate - 8.0
Woman is the Future of Man - 7.5
Tale of Cinema - 8.0
Woman on the Beach - 8.0
Night & Day - 6.0

I'll try to get to Turning Gate this week, maybe today. I actually prefer him slightly to Rohmer, to whom is he most often compared.

[Stay Puft]

Virgin Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors - 7

[dreamdead]

I actually prefer him slightly to Rohmer, to whom is he most often compared.

This is an intriguing thought. Care to expound? What does Hong offer over Rohmer? More interesting commentary on the dynamics between men and women? More interesting formal minimalism, which is a trait that you enjoy? etc.?

Also, thoughts on Turning Gate?

Now if only one more person could watch Tale of Cinema and see its homage to Vertigo... :|

[Pop Trash]

I always get this guy and Lee Chang-Dong confused, but I haven't seen movies by either one of them.

[origami_mustache]

On the Occasion of Remembering the Turning Gate - 8.5

[transmogrifier]

I always get this guy and Lee Chang-Dong confused, but I haven't seen movies by either one of them.

Here's a trick I learned to tell them apart: Lee Chang-Dong is the one that makes interesting movies.

[NickGlass]

Night and Day (2008) [3]

Yeah, I know.

Oh, I know it, too.

Woman is the Future of Man (2004): 7.5
Woman on the Beach (2006): 9.0
Night and Day (2008): 3.5

I would really like to see Tale of Cinema; I'm not sure why I haven't yet.

[dreamdead]

Results:

Woman on the Beach - 8 (5)
Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors - 7.9 (5)
(On the Occasion of the) Turning Gate - 7.6667 (6)
Night and Day - 4.75 (4)

Did not Qualify:
Tale of Cinema - 8.5 (3)
Woman is the Future of Man - 7 (3)
The Power of Kangwon Province - 6 (3)
The Day a Pig Fell into the Well - 6 (1)

Most viewed: Derek (though I'll soon suffer through the horrid subtitles of Pig )
Ambivalent: baby doll and trans

For those who feel Hong's films are artless, how do you reconcile that Lee Chang-dong's films are similarly nondescript in their cinematography; it feels that both Hong and Lee get their directorial stamp into their films through their studied take on narrative and segmented storylines. Although Lee deals more with the culture of South Korea outwardly, I think Hong deals with those same themes aplenty, so what is it about his films that puts you off?

[transmogrifier]

I think once you have spent a significant amount of time in Korean culture, Hong's pet themes just make you think "Yes, and...?" because they are so bleeding obvious and not especially insightful. Especially the tenth time through. This wouldn't be much of an issue if he had plots worth a damn, but he doesn't, and so his films are a mammoth chore to sit through. Lee actually seems to want to tell stories as well as tackle weighty Korean-centric themes, and thus his films are actually worth watching.

[Derek]

This is an intriguing thought. Care to expound? What does Hong offer over Rohmer? More interesting commentary on the dynamics between men and women? More interesting formal minimalism, which is a trait that you enjoy? etc.?

I find his film's structures lead to more interesting dynamics between men and women, often introducing elements such as memory and perception which play key roles in his work. Not to suggest Rohmer has no formal chops, but I think Hong gets short-changed on the whole as a visual stylist. His style is subtle and his uniqueness is most apparent in the editing and his unusual sense of pacing, particularly in his consistently brilliant drunken conversation, but his use of the frame is often impressive as well. His 1 male/2 female, or vice-versa, sequences are often shot with off-balance compositions or are visually suggestive of the shifting power dynamics within a scene. Not to say Rohmer does none of this, but Hong seems like more of a perfectionist and it shows in his films.

[MacGuffin]

Did not Qualify:
Woman is the Future of Man - 7 (3)


If it helps any, I'll throw out a 6.5 for this one.

[Peng]

After I started watching him in 2013 with Nobody's Daughter Haewon, I'm finally caught up!

The Day a Pig Fell Into the Well (1996) - 7.5
The Power of Kangwon Province (1998) - 7.5

Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors (2000) - 4.5
On the Occasion of Remembering the Turning Gate (2002) - 7.5
Woman Is the Future of Man (2004) - 5.5
Tale of Cinema (2005) - 8
Woman on the Beach (2006) - 7
Night and Day (2008) - 7
Like You Know It All (2009) - 7
Lost in the Mountains (2009) - 7

Ha Ha Ha (2010) - 7.5
Oki's Movie (2010) - 7.5
The Day He Arrives (2011) - 7.5
List (2011) - 7
In Another Country (2012) - 7
Nobody's Daughter Haewon (2013) - 7
Our Sunhi (2013) - 8
Hill of Freedom (2014) - 7.5
Right Now, Wrong Then (2015) - 8.5
Yourself and Yours (2016) - 7.5
On the Beach at Night Alone (2017) - 7.5
Claire's Camera (2017) - 7
The Day After (2017) - 8
Grass (2018) - 5
Hotel by the River (2018) - 7

The Woman Who Ran (2020) - 6
Introduction (2021) - 5.5
In Front of Your Face (2021) - 8.5
The Novelist's Film (2022) - 6.5
Walk Up (2022) - 7
In Water (2023) - 7.5
In Our Day (2023) - 6