CULTURE / MOVIE
6 Weeks Continuous Project < Maybe New Hong Sang-Soo > Second Week
The latest type of Hong Sang-Soo, or the last variant seen in ”On the Beach at Night Alone”

Starting from ”And Then” released on June 9, Hong Sang-Soo will be released four times in a row. Hon Sang-soo's works have strong fans. With this work group Hong Sang-soo has changed, or has not changed. Truth is really -. In A PEOPLE, we will talk about Hong Sang-Soo's "unchanged world" and "the world that will change". This time, it’s about ”On the Beach at Night Alone” that key person, actress Kim Min-hee is fully appealing.

Exile and return. ”On the Beach at Night Alone” develops in two parts which can be described in such a way. It is common in Hon Sang-soo movies that two different phases are contrasted, mixed, or spoken in parallel. This is its newest type, and in some cases it may be the last variation.

At the end of the affair, the actress leaves her home country and gazes at herself in Hamburg, Germany. While looking for the older female friend, she reflects on healing the wounded heart at a place far from her career. After that, it’s not known how much time has passed, but after returning home she starts thinking about starting over in Kanun, South Korea. In Hamburg, the movie draws some eating scenes here and there as if cracks gradually emerge as a result of her mind that seemed calm.

The light becomes dark, and the darkness changes to light. The stage which flows in the session of eating and drinking, the effect which can grasp the natural seizure-like transformation has reached the precision which is almost like a shrine. Kim Min-hee embodying the state of drunkenness coldly in the center is settled in the center.

It may be said that the two parts are the front side and the back side, and it may be expressed as day and night. Either way, people are not as they are seen, and the feelings are not constant. The desire to calm down and the missing that explodes to some rhythm are just as true.

Whether you are torn in love or not, people are always walking on tight ropes. Is that rope prepared by yourself? Or is it already prepared on the spot? The heart that walks on the rope without knowing it is the feeling that everyone knows.

Unexpectedly, a man with black clothes appears several times like a ghost. It maybe the symbol of the inner self of the person, the existence of the man itself, or accidental event of passing. A brush with a simple but ambiguous possibility and coexistence of the possibility and impossibility of living affirm the light and darkness of life as being equivalent.

Written by：Toji Aida(相田冬二)