‘What does that Nature Say to You’ Review: Hong Sang-Soo Is In Top Form with A Convivial Meet-The-Parents Occasion That Goes South Before Dessert

No Figure in World Cinema Is As Productive As South Korean One-Man Band Hong Sang-Soo, or As Consistent in Exploring Variations on Similar Themes, Always from A Fresh Angle. With Such A Prolific Output – He have 33 Features Under His Belt, ALL BUT Three of Them Made Since 2000 – they can all be perfectly formed Jewels. But WHEN PIECES FIT TOGETCHER, theying unQUELY SATISFYING, Finding Nuance in Simplicity, Poetry in the Mundane, Deeper Meaning in the MOST Seemingly Innocues Exchanges. What does that Nature Say to you (Geu Jayeoni Nege Mworago Hani) Is One of Hong’s More Captivating Recent Entries.

The Lives of Artists, CHANCE MEETINGS, Leisurely Meals, Cigarette Breaks and Drunken Humilations Are All Stapples of Hong’s Films that Resurface in the Theater of the Theater. of his girlfRIEND OF THREE YEARS, WHO HAS Somehow Never Mentioned His Existence to Her Parents. Maybe because she foresaw the result. Cruelty and Condescension Also Figure Frequently in the Director’s Work, Bringing An Acrid Aftertertast to this Reflection on the Insoularity Well-Heeled Prospective In-Laws.

One of the Distinguishing Qualitities of Hong’s Films is the Naturalistic Sleight of Hand Makes Scripted Talks Seem Entirely Sportaneous, Giving Audiens. I that attribute that make this deciptielya StraightForward mapping of a fork in the reactionship road so transfixing.

Told in eight Untitled Chapters, The Movie Starts with Donghwa (HA Seongguk) Driving his Girlfriend Junhee (Kang Soyi) to Her Parentts’ House. The Awkward Beneath Their Mutual Fondness Hints at Junhee’s HESTATION TO INTRODUCE HIM to Her Family and at Donghwa Being Too EmbarrasSed to Suggest It. But WHEN STEPS OUT OF THE CAR to SMOKE A CIGarette, He’s Bowled Over by The Size and Size and Size of Her Family Home, So Junhee Decides It Wow DO NOTAC Landscaped Front Garden.

What she doesn’ticipate is her Father, Oryeong (Kwon Haehyo), Pottering AROUND ON THE DRIVEWAY. A HandSeme, Confident Man, Junhee’s Dad Is Immediatally Friendly with Donghwa But Sems More Interared in His Car. He Marvels at the ’96 Model Like It’s A Vintage Jalopy and Insists on Taking it for a spin. “IT EVEN HAS A CASSETTE DECK!” Oryeong Says Upon Returning, With What Sems Almost Like Genuine Appreciation. Naturally, he invites his daughter’s beau to Stick AROUND FOR DINNER TO MEET JUNHEE’S MOTHER, WHO WON’T HOME UNTIL LATER.

While Junhee Goes Upstairs to Chat with Her Older Sister Sister Neunghee (Park Miso), Who Sems to Have No Discernible Interests Other Tharas. Facher Ushers Donghwa Back Out to the Garden to Smoke. Oryeong sems delighted to learn that donghwa is a poet, like his wife sunhee (chor yunhee). He Even Admires the Younger Man’s Mustache (“So Pretty”) and Goatee, Confessing that He’s Never Been Able to Grow Facial Hair.

Grabbing a bottle of the Fermented Rice Liquor Makgelli from his garden shad, Junhee’s Facher Gives her Boyfriend a Tour of the Grounds. Oryeong Tells The Visor that he designed and Built the House on a Hillside for His Mother, Who Died of Cancer Some Years Back, and that HE NOW Views of the Estate As a Memorial. “Filial Love Can Change A Mountain,” Says Donghwa, Perhaps Straining for Profundity As Oryeong Breaks Out A Second Bottle.

Clearly a Man Acustomated to Having People Follows Orders, Oryeong Tells Junhee to Take Her Sister Sister and Donghhwa Out To Lunch and To Visit A ​​LUNEFE That excursion proves pleasant enough, Even if a needling edge creeps into interrogation of doonhhwa over Bibimbap with Pork. Sheems especially curoures about whoh refuses any Financial Support from His Father, A Respected Atorney, Quietly Pegging Him As a Loser Who Drives A CRAPPPY A CRAPPY

Neunghee and oryeong bots ask the same quest of doonhhwa: “What do you like about junhee?” But despite his clam to be a poet, he have noting beyond Generic Praise for Her.

Hong and His Excellent Actors – All of Whom, Aside from NewComer Kang, Are Members of the Director’s Uniofficial Repertory Company WHEN JUNHEE’S FAMILY START SLAENTLY RULING HIM OUT As Margin Material. IT Sems Significant That Both of Her Paarents Are Relctant to Switch from Formal Address to More Familiar Terms with HIM.

If lunch was a preliminal test, The Elaborate Chicken Dinner Turns Into Juried Trial. They Remain Cordial and Let Donghwa Basical Eliminate HimSelf As A Potential Son-In-Law, While Oryeong Keeps Pouring Him Shots of Whiskey, on Top of Makgeoli An. You can Tell A Regretable Outburst is on the Cards, Even if It’s Delayed WHEN A MID-MID-MIDEal Break To Strol Up The Hillside and Show Their Guest The Sunset.

Hong Flirts with Cringe Comedy As Donghwa Prattles on About Trying to Live Only Wath What’s Necessary and Not Rely on Ohers, ALSO Rhapsodizing About His Emocial Responspons. Temple. But his Poetic Aspirs Start to Sound Flimsy. Sunhee Sems to Be Barely Supppressing An Eye Roll As Her Mind Ticks Over. WHEN NEUNGHHEE PUSHES HIS BUTTONS ONE TOO Many Times About Always Having His Father’s Money to Fall Back On, The Now Completely Wasted Donghwa Explodes and Is Instantly Mottified.

This Uncomfortable Family Scenario Could Have Out Any Number of Ways, from Broad Comedy to Volatile Drama, But Hong Puts His Own Sui Generis Stamp on IT. Nothing Is Ever Forced or Overwritten. Even the Post-Mortem Conversation Between Oryeong and Sunhee After Dinner, While HILARIOSLY Scathing, Never Pushes for Laughs. Hong Mainstay Kwon Shows of the Expansive Side of His Character, But His Warm Welcome Is Decides, While Chotly Makes Sunhee The One Who Calls in the Family.

AS USUAL, HONG IS OWN CREW, Credited As DP, Composer, Editor and Sound Designer, Along with Writer, Producer and Director. He’s Developed An Economy of Means and An Effortlessness Over the Years That Serve His Characters and Their Negotia of Every Life Well. The PREDOMINANCE OF DETACHED, FIXED-Camera Shots Allows for Detailed Observation, with Occasional Pans and Zooms to Redirect Our Attention. His use-video sems designed to mirror the soft focus of doonhhwa’s Vision WHEN HE’S NOT WEARING HIS GLASSESS.

The Farewell Scene Between Junhee and Donghwa The Following Morning Is Affecting, Sensitively Played by Both Actors. She shows concern for the deep gash on his arm from whoh ha was out look at the Moon Dringing the Night and Tripped. But WHEN HE LOCKS HER IN A TIGHT HUG TO SAY GOODBYE, She ALMOST FLINCHES. The Open Ending Is AmbiguS, but the Outlook on the Future of Their Relationship Sems Clear, Even if at Least One of Them Probably Doesn’t Yet Know It.