Hotel by the River

Sang-soo makes use of black-and-white photography and a brilliant caste, in particular Kim Min-hee and Ki Joo-bong, to weave a compelling yet simple tale of love and loss. Paternal bonds once weak can be strengthened in just a few shared moments of joy, while time is needed to heal the physical and emotional wounds of a failed relationship.

2019 was the first year without a hong premiere since 2007, so it's unsurprising that this plays like an end-point for the hong-kim saga. that's not to say they'll stop working together, but the structure and final shots, along with the complete absence of an implied abusive love interest, suggest that maybe he feels it's time to move on from all the hong surrogates (although i'll only believe it when i see it!) and shift focus onto an actress far more worthy of our interest and compassion.

First I've seen by Hong Sang-soo, which I'm sure will be followed by many more. I love that the climax was the reading of a poem, which I'd really like to seek the text of.

alright.

There's a chilling sense of morbid, depressive fatality that seeps into the characters' interactions as awkwardness. It's definitely a slow-burner and at times feels too slow, but that might serve to make it even more effective. Somehow it creeps to your heart, starts slowly but surely gripping it and finally crushes it mercilessly. Frankly the movie reads as a suicide note for a suicide that never was.

Despite having very little plot to speak of and being filmed in a pretty straightforward style with few flourishes, Hotel by the River somehow manages to be a rather compelling portrait of people who are awkwardly (re)connecting and moving forward in the face of personal struggles.

38. İstanbul Film Festivali - Beyoğlu Sineması.

Like Hong's last film The Day After this is a very straightforward film. There is no experimenting for plot structures in this film. People finding that to be the most interesting part of Song's movies will probably be let down a bit by it. People more focused on Hong's simple but confident directing style and his humane look into characters that slowly reveal themselves (of course after having a few too many drinks) this offers plenty to enjoy again.