Summary
Hong Sang-soo returns to Berlinale with his latest understated bubble of perfection, split across two countries but maintaining his distinctive style.
Going all the way back to The Day the Pig Fell Into a Well, filmmaker Hong Sang-soo has been fascinated with the butterfly effects of human interaction. Through a career of over two dozen features, sometimes releasing as many as two to three titles a year, Hong has refined his snapshots to a series of recurring motifs, a deceptively carefree style, and a company of familiar actors.
With INTRODUCTION (Inteurodeoksyeon), Hong splits his narrative between his native South Korea and Berlin — which is incredibly apt given that it is debuting at the Berlinale this year. However, unlike Claire’s Camera, this does not make a European film festival its backdrop.
Following an establishing scene in a doctor’s (Kim Youngho) surgery, the basic setup sees fashion student Ju-won (Park Miso) arrive in Berlin to study, where she is hosted by an artist (Kim Minhee) who is friends with her mother (Seo Younghwa). Ju-won’s boyfriend Young-ho (Shin Seokho) barely waits a day before hopping on a plane to join her, much to the nonplussed confusion of Ju-won. The film then jumps to a few years later when Young-ho meets a famous actor (Gi Ju-bong) over drinks with his own mother (Cho Yun-hee).
Despite a tidy 66 minute runtime, making it even short than last year’s The Woman Who Ran, Hong’s series of encounters are unsurprisingly complex. As you can probably tell from the brief distillation above, the overlapping connections between these characters make up much of the content. We are introduced to Ju-won and her artist friend while standing outside smoking, talking about seemingly innocuous subjects of trees and the canal.
Indeed, it’s smoking, drinking, and food that once again serve as anchor points for these interactions. When we properly meet the old actor, at least following his brief appearance at the doctor’s office, he’s at a table swapping soju and beer with Young-ho’s mother. When the topic of love is raised, and the trade-off for career and relationships, he becomes agitated. “One person embracing another,” he yells. “Where’s the wrong in that?” Played once again by long-standing Hong proxy in Gi Ju-bong, we can imagine that this is the closest Hong comes to speaking directly to us.
Like A Hotel By the River, or any number of his films really, Hong spends his denouement referencing a hotel next to a large body of water. Indeed, this is where the film culminates, with two of the men in the cold on a black and white beach. We aren’t far from where we started, at least not in terms of major events, but Hong takes us a long way in this abbreviated space.
At a time when South Korean cinema is having a ‘moment’ thanks to the high-profile Parasite win, critical staple Hong Sang-soo reminds of what he’s been reliably telling us for the last 25 years. Filled with a veritable who’s who of Korean stardom, this is the kind of film you show people to demonstrate what the rest of us have known all along. You might even say it’s an amazing introduction.
2021 | South Korea | DIRECTOR: Hong Sang-soo | WRITER: Hong Sang-soo | CAST: Shin Seokho, Park Miso, Kim Youngho, Ki Joobong, Seo Younghwa, Kim Minhee, Cho Yunhee, Ye Jiwon, Ha Seongguk | DISTRIBUTOR: Jeonwonsa (KOR), Finecut (Global), Berlinale 2021 | RUNNING TIME: 66 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 1-5 March 2021 (GER)
