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.
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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.
[]
The Boat People - 9
The Power of the Dog - 7.5
The King of Pigs - 7
The Power of Kangwon Province - 5.5
Woman on the Beach - 8
Night and Day - 6.5
Turning Gate (2002) 7.5
No good reason I haven't seen more.
Recently Viewed:
Thor: The Dark World (2013) **½
The Counselor (2013) *½
Walden (1969) ***
A Hijacking (2012) ***½
Before Midnight (2013) ***
Films By Year
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.
Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors - 8.0
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
The Boat People - 9
The Power of the Dog - 7.5
The King of Pigs - 7
Night and Day (2008) [3]
Yeah, I know.
Just because...
The Fabelmans (Steven Spielberg, 2022) mild
Petite maman (Céline Sciamma, 2021) mild
The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh, 2022) mild
The last book I read was...
The Complete Short Stories by Mark Twain
The (New) World
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.
Virgin Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors - 7
Giving up in 2020. Who cares.
maɬni – towards the ocean, towards the shore (Sky Hopinka) ***½
Without Remorse (Stefano Sollima) *½
The Marksman (Robert Lorenz) **
Beckett (Ferdinando Cito Filomarino) *½
Night Hunter (David Raymond) *
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.?Quoting Derek (view post)
Also, thoughts on Turning Gate?
Now if only one more person could watch Tale of Cinema and see its homage to Vertigo... :|
The Boat People - 9
The Power of the Dog - 7.5
The King of Pigs - 7
I always get this guy and Lee Chang-Dong confused, but I haven't seen movies by either one of them.
Ratings on a 1-10 scale for your pleasure:
Top Gun: Maverick - 8
Top Gun - 7
McCabe & Mrs. Miller - 8
Crimes of the Future - 8
Videodrome - 9
Valley Girl - 8
Summer of '42 - 7
In the Line of Fire - 8
Passenger 57 - 7
Everything Everywhere All at Once - 6
On the Occasion of Remembering the Turning Gate - 8.5
In Front of Your Face (Hong Sang-soo, 2021) - 6
Introduction (Hong Sang-soo, 2021) - 6
True Mothers (Naomi Kawase, 2020) - 8
Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy - (Ryusuke Hamaguchi, 2021) - 7
Wife of a Spy (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 2020) - 7
The Power of the Dog (Jane Campion, 2021) - 9
Don't Look Up - (Adam McKay, 2021) - 4
The Matrix Resurrections (Lana Wachowski, 2021) - 4.5
Benedetta (Paul Verhoeven, 2021) - 7
mubi
Here's a trick I learned to tell them apart: Lee Chang-Dong is the one that makes interesting movies.Quoting Pop Trash (view post)
Last 10 Movies Seen
(90+ = canonical, 80-89 = brilliant, 70-79 = strongly recommended, 60-69 = good, 50-59 = mixed, 40-49 = below average with some good points, 30-39 = poor, 20-29 = bad, 10-19 = terrible, 0-9 = soul-crushingly inept in every way)
Run (2020) 64
The Whistlers (2019) 55
Pawn (2020) 62
Matilda (1996) 37
The Town that Dreaded Sundown (1976) 61
Moby Dick (2011) 50
Soul (2020) 64
Heroic Duo (2003) 55
A Moment of Romance (1990) 61
As Tears Go By (1988) 65
Stuff at Letterboxd
Listening Habits at LastFM
Oh, I know it, too.Quoting baby doll (view post)
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.
I'm writing for Slant Magazine now, so check out my list of reviews.
Hopefully I'll have the energy to update my signature soon.
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?
The Boat People - 9
The Power of the Dog - 7.5
The King of Pigs - 7
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.
Last 10 Movies Seen
(90+ = canonical, 80-89 = brilliant, 70-79 = strongly recommended, 60-69 = good, 50-59 = mixed, 40-49 = below average with some good points, 30-39 = poor, 20-29 = bad, 10-19 = terrible, 0-9 = soul-crushingly inept in every way)
Run (2020) 64
The Whistlers (2019) 55
Pawn (2020) 62
Matilda (1996) 37
The Town that Dreaded Sundown (1976) 61
Moby Dick (2011) 50
Soul (2020) 64
Heroic Duo (2003) 55
A Moment of Romance (1990) 61
As Tears Go By (1988) 65
Stuff at Letterboxd
Listening Habits at LastFM
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.Quoting dreamdead (view post)
If it helps any, I'll throw out a 6.5 for this one.Quoting dreamdead (view post)
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
Midnight Run (1988) - 9
The Smiling Lieutenant (1931) - 8.5
The Adventures of Robinhood (1938) - 8
Sisters (1973) - 6.5
Shin Godzilla (2016) - 7.5