Kicking off one of South Korean auteur Hong Sang-soo’s most prolific years to date, his masterful On the Beach at Night Alone premiered in competition at the 2017 Berlin International Film Festival and snagged his leading muse Kim Min-hee a Best Actress award (she would appear in his other two 2017 titles, The Day After and Claire’s Camera, which premiered several months later out of Cannes—all three titles were bought for US distribution by The Cinema Guild). Opening in limited theatrical release stateside in November of 2017, Sang-soo’s mournful portrait of a ruinous love affair between an actress and a married film director, the film scored about thirty-six-thousand at the box office but went on to become one of the most well-received items to date from the perennial director.
From our review out of Berlin: “Since many of Sang-soo’s films feel like echoes of one another, whenever he travels outside of South Korea or uses foreign elements, this tends to add a certain ‘stranger in a strange land’ element, which is enhanced thanks to the director’s curious, pronounced approach. Like his love letter to Isabelle Huppert with 2012’s In Another Country, or his focus on Japanese actor Ryo Kase in 2014’s Hill of Freedom, the film’s opening in Hamburg, Germany provides a gentle but unique prologue for Younghee’s predicament, and Min-hee is paired delectably with regular Sang-soo cast mate Seo Younghwa as an older woman visiting friends in the country. Lilting conversations about speaking English and obtaining food are the superficial elements which eventually slide into notions of love and desire between the two women who speak of how similar they are despite somewhat opposing views. The segment also provides the first visit to a beach, a setting where Younghee will return to find solace.”
Disc Review:
Picture and sound quality are serviceable in this transfer, which is presented in 5.1 DTS-HD. A Q+A with Hong Sang-soo following its screening at the 2017 New York Film Festival is included along with the theatrical trailer and an insert essay by Mark Peranson.
Film Review: ★★★½/☆☆☆☆☆
Disc Review: ★★★½/☆☆☆☆☆
