Same Again...?

South Korean director Hong Sang-soo is a man that can be easily associated with that popular and age-old joke: ‘A South Korean film director walks into a bar…etc., etc., etc.’ Pretty much all of his films revolve around people sitting in some sort of establishment where alcoholic beverages can be purchased, discussing the ins and outs of their – usually sex – life, as the booze continues to flow. Most of the lead characters (typically male) are artistically-troubled film directors, serving in roles of university lecturers and film festival panels, where younger and more female humans are their subordinates, leading the still young enough Mr Director to try and make his power remove their underwear. If it’s in a drunkenly awkward scenario, the better.

Soo, what am I saying?! All of his films are the same?! That is something that could very much be said. A large proportion of his films revolve around a very similar premise and, being in the more art wing of the house, plot and story development are not major players. So, it could be interpreted that this is a one-trick pony, making the same old film yet again, which you didn’t much care for in the first place, like a sporting team that loses every week, never learning from their mistakes.

Interpretation number one out of the bag, what’s the second? A more positive light on his films would suggest a director exploring the different directions his characters can go, both within films themselves, but also throughout his body of work. Starting from the same point, he explores the right moves, the wrong moves, the very wrong moves, with good ol’ Captain Hindsight there at the end to let the protagonists know what they should have done. Life can switch in a moment, depending on a (usually drunken) impulse and can lead us to many different stories and success with each option open to us. The characters often languish in melancholy, unaware as to how much they truly are in control of their own destiny.

‘HaHaHa’ (2010) is a brilliantly-named film, though, as with most Hong films, is not as laugh-out-loud (that’s how you spell LOL) funny as the title would suggest. Two friends, one obviously a film director, meet for drinks before the filmmaker jets off for Canada. They discuss their recent adventures over beverages, discovering they have both just been to their small home town. Discussions soon turn to the fairer sex (sexist) and, known to the audience, but unbeknownst to them, they had both been having fun with the same girl while in town.

The shots of the present conversation are still in black and white, with the dialogue flowing over them, before the memoirs are played out for the camera; perhaps the film’s ‘gimmick.’ The two leads are pawns for the audience as we can laugh at the pair ending up in the same places with the same faces, though each is unaware that this was the case, with the same scenario played out, though the lead male changing each time.

This is an archetypal Hong film, involving drinking, liaisons with women, a film director, and repeating the same scenario to different outcomes. A subtle comedy, as they all are, what differentiates this film is the still shots to accompany the initial recollections before switching to the action and the male protagonist changing alternately.

Similar to this, but just involving one man, who works in film, are ‘The Day He Arrives’ and the recent ‘Right Now, Wrong Then’. In the former, a film lecturer arrives in Seoul to meet up with a friend for a few days. Along the way, he bumps into various characters and ends up in various amorous situations. The next day, he bumps into the same various characters and once again ends up in various amorous situations.

A 'Groundhog Day' scenario, the 'hero' essentially lives the same day three times, the people he meets and places he winds up the same, though the journey of the day varies each time. This, therefore, feels a little like watching a spot-the-difference competition, essentially watching the same short three times, just with some tweaks to the dialogue but always resulting in drunken conversations and lip-locking. This is very much a Hong film.

'Right Now, Wrong Then' follows this idea of the same situation being played out, though this time only twice: A film director gives an introduction to his new film at a provincial film festival. Bored for what to do next, he meets a young artist and the two gradually get talking, visiting her apartment, going for sushi and late-night drinking. To start, things go well, only for the relationship of the pair to worsen as the story progresses. This is 'Right Then, Wrong Now'. But we're only halfway through the film.

The second half starts 'Right Now, Wrong Then', with the same scenario played through, though this time the meeting of the pair starts off less than friendly and gradually becomes warmer as the story progresses. The main reason for this is the revelations that the director offers. First time around, he is flirtatious, wanting to meet the undies of the young artist, not revealing he is married, so when the truth comes out, it hurts. Second time around, he is more honest, letting it be known that he is married to start, perhaps why things are more cold to start. But as they get to know each other, feelings develop more.

A repeated criticism of Hong's films is that there is little end point to them: They are drunken bumbles that end up in poorly judged intercourse. Though 'Right Now, Wrong Then' has a bit more to it than that, looking at the nature of truth in relationships and how honesty is probably the best policy.

All of Hong's films have a fish out of water element, with people arriving in places somewhat alien to them. 'Hill of Freedom', perhaps my favourite Hong film, features Japanese actor-man, Ryo Hase arriving in Seoul, a former linguistic teacher there, searching for a former student he fell in love with. But she's not there; sick, she has gone to the mountains to recuperate. Left on his own, he spends his days drinking with locals, sleeping with women and speaking hilariously broken English. Most of this is in English, making this perhaps Hong's most outwardly humorous film.

With her not there, he writes her letters, leaving them at her school reception. Though when she collects them, she drops them, losing their chronology. with no dates added, she reads them at random, the film played-out with no order of which to speak, again adding to the humour.

While still featuring a male role superior to that of his female love interest, this is something of a different film in that no one admits to being a film director. Rather than repeating stories with slightly different journeys, here Hong plays with non-linear storytelling. This is perhaps why it is quite short. Though kept light, here he is more creative and varied with his ideas.

The Japanese dealt with, Hong has also looked at Europeans in South Korea, namely the French. Though for 'In Another Country', Hong offers more of his usual offering. A writer starts a story about a French film director, naturally, arriving in a small sea-side town. Here she sits about, drinks, eats, gets bored, looks for a lighthouse and gets flirty with the local life guard. The same story is then told again twice, with the same cast, though the characters change each time, apart from the life guard.

Firstly, she is a French film director; secondly she is a woman arriving to meet her film director lover in secret as they have their affair; thirdly she is a woman recently divorced, her husband having left her for a Korean women.

Being a white woman, perhaps Hong is commenting on Korean attitudes towards Western women, everyone telling her she is beautiful, when all three guises of 'Anna' (played by real-life French female Isabelle Huppert) clearly are not. While the English dialogue is humorous in 'Hill of Freedom', here is too awkward, acted woodenly and none of the characters likeable. Here all Korean men are sexual predators and French women irritating and coquettish. There is no end to any of these three journeys, and this is a script that perhaps Hong should have left in another country.

Two potentially more conventional films from Hong are 'Nobody's Daughter Haewon' and 'Like You Know it All'. The latter features another film director in an unknown setting, taking on the role of panel judge in a small film festival. But he doesn't care much for it, more interested in one of the young organisers. Getting drunk, however, the night ends a mess, with the young female disappointed by him not taking a more senior role and protecting her when vulnerable. A falling out with a friend over his young wife also leaves him feeling a little mythed.

Taking some time off, he visits a film school where he lectures, meeting his old teacher, now married to his former lover. More drunken antics ensue, leaving our hero in a spot of bother, hapless when it comes to alcohol and women. Hong plays with Director Koo here, unwittingly finding himself in various scenarios where he ends up taking all the blame. Though as he keeps ending up in these scenarios, despite the new faces and different setting, he fails to learn from his mistakes, repeating the same scenarios. Ironically for a Hong film, however, this is more of a linear film, so while not a repeat of the same scenario, he is a man destined to go round in circles.

'Nobody's Daughter Haewon' has a similar elder man/younger female relationship, but is more from the perspective of the female, though not entirely. Feeling somewhat orphaned as her mother leaves for Canada, she re-ignites a secret affair with her former teacher. But spending time together, the secret is soon out, leaving Haewon feeling further alienated. More brooding than comedy, this is slightly more straightforward in terms of narrative, though is a somewhat complex piece.

These last two lack some of the ‘gimmicks’ of the previously mentioned, though are less distinct than some of his other works. Indeed, these 'gimmicks' can serve as the point of differentiation between his films: the stories similar, the way they are told is what you perhaps take away. Though not just similar thematically, Hong has a definite style exhibited throughout his films. His use of long takes gives a naturalistic feel to his films, the actors seeming to be thinking of what to say as the camera rolls, making it seem improvised and stuttering, though conversations don't really happen with the sharpness that films suggest. These long takes come with lengthy dialogue between characters, putting the world to rights over alcohol; the camera often zooming in to draw the audience to listen closely to what is being said.

This is a limited analysis of Hong's films, and I have not seen the full body of his works, though with a similar theme and style throughout, I'm not sure if I need to. Other directors with a similar number of titles to their name will have tried their hand at different genres and styles, though Hong prefers to stick to what he knows, perhaps the bumbling directors drunkenly floundering at younger women a reflection of his own life.

While for the most part enjoyable, perhaps it is time for Hong to call time on the drunken conversations in his films and head home to prepare himself for a new day and a new style. While each film has its own little gimmick, the fact that the characters and scenarios are largely interchangeable makes you sometimes feel you are watching the same again.