This was published 9 years ago
MIFF 2016 review: Hong Sang-soo's Right Now, Wrong Then a rich and contemplative comedy
Updated ,first published
RIGHT NOW, WRONG THEN
Melbourne International Film Festival
Forum, August 12 at 11am
In Hong Sang-soo's film of small details, a poster for Boy Meets Girl – glimpsed on a wall during a party – is especially fitting; the title of Leos Carax's wonderful 1984 debut just about sums up the central concern of the South Korean director's sizeable body of work.
His latest centres on an encounter between an arthouse director (Jung Jae-young), in Suwon for a screening of one of his films, and a young artist (Kim Min-hee).
They meet in the grounds of an old palace, begin to connect, and eventually wind up drunk as a day spills into night.
For many filmmakers this would be the set-up for a broader narrative, yet Hong reruns precisely the same events in the film's second half, where new possibilities arise from the slightest of changes: a truth declared, a gesture. This may seem like a cheap gimmick, but it's not.
Shot through with Hong's oft-cited trademark playfulness, this is a nuanced take on relationships between the sexes, our flaws, romantic pursuits and how we connect (or don't). With deftly drawn characters, it's a rich work that is by turns contemplative and comic.
Matthew Burgess is the Community Manager for The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Brisbane Times and WAtoday.Connect via email.