Night and Day (밤과 낮) (2008)

My first criticism of this movie is that it is way too long at 2.5 hours. It is a series of vignettes, some just mere seconds long, but they really add up. They (mostly?) add to the character development, but there is so much development. The art community in Paris interestingly has a sizable amount of Korean artists, including a North Korean artist. For a movie that takes place in Paris, there are not all that many French people in the movie. France merely provides the backdrop of the art world, including the Musee d'Orsay.

I'd like to just reiterate that Hong Sang-soo is super awkward. He has that Robert Altman zoom and some awkward dialogue and long takes. But life is awkward, isn't it? I stand by my characterization of Hong as Korean Woody Allen. He does the dramedy genre, albeit the comedy is much more subtle and awkward and not really ha-ha funny. But they have the same bougie ambitions. They both have a fascination with adultery and misbehaving men. There are some really charming vignettes, but the ending confused me. I think it's a winding statement on male desire, the fluctuating line between desire and action, and maybe the fleeting nature of desire. What the statement exactly is though is lost on me.

Right Now, Wrong Then (지금은맞고그때는틀리다) (2015)

This is a story told twice, with small differences that butterfly into vastly different endings. The key difference is honesty. The lesson is to be honest with yourself and to be honest with each other. The structure is interesting and engaging. It takes two excellent performances for a movie like this to work. The acting differences are so subtle but have profound implications. It's kind of slow at times but in retrospect it was quite beautiful. Perhaps made even more so by the fact that they never consummate their brief affair in either version.

I admit it is a little awkward watching this story unfold knowing about the affair between married director Hong Sang-soo and lead actress Kim Min-hee that began in the production of this movie. The premise of the movie is there is a married movie director who falls in love with a beautiful woman he encounters while in town for a local film festival. There's something Woody Allen-esque about it, in that life imitates art imitates life (imitates art?).