[REVIEW] "Night And Day" by Hong Sang-soo

The day Hong Sang-soo fell into New York

Korean filmmaker Hong Sang-soo's "Night And Day" opened in New York amidst positive reviews from film critics. The film, distributed by IFC Films, was open on a one-week timeframe at the Manhattan Anthology Film Archive from October 23 thru October 29. However, profits from the one-week showing and box office admissions (i.e. most films distributed by IFC usually open at the IFC Center in Manhattan) have not been revealed to the public. No official explanation has been given on this matter yet.

"Night",which was shown at last year's New York Film Festival, has not received too many reviews yet as it had a limited release to the public. Some of these reviews are from last year, when it was first shown at the festival. However, according to film critic portal Rotten Tomatoes, the film scored 89 percent on freshness as eight out of nine reviews called the movie "fresh". Time Out New York (TONY), which gave the film five stars, was quoted as saying, "Filmmakers from Jacques Rivette to Hou Hsiao-hsien have treated the City of Light like Alice’s rabbit hole; writer-director Hong Sang-soo similarly embraces the fantasy, but goes a step further in this extraordinary character study by fully erasing the line that separates the actual from the fictional." In other words, director Hong Sang-soo has achieved an extraordinary character study by completely erasing the line between reality and fiction. But the New York Times pointed out the director's repetitive expression of male characters.

"Night" was also introduced at the "Hong Sang-soo Exhibition" featured at LA County Museum of Art (LACMA), which was held in September. A total of eight films by the director were shown at the exhibition: "Night And Day", "Like You Know It All", "The Day a Pig Fell into the Well", "Woman on the Beach", "Woman Is the Future of Man", "On the Occasion of Remembering the Turning Gate", "Tale of Cinema" and "The Power of Kangwon Province".

Reporter : Yang Ji-hyun, New York Correspondent
Editor : Lynn Kim lynn2878@asiae.co.kr, Jang Kyung-Jin three@10asia.co.kr