South Korean filmmaker Hong Sangsoo works at a clip that might leave you breathless. This year alone he’s completed three pictures — all of which have hit the festival circuit — and now they’re making their way to an arthouse near you. As per usual, they’re all worth tracking down, and you’ll want to make space this season for “On The Beach At Night Alone.”
Featuring a terrific, award-winning performance by Kim Minhee, the story is loosely inspired by the director’s own affair with the actress, and the result is a film we called both “exceptional” and “exciting.” Here’s the official synopsis:
Art imitates life in this quietly devastating masterpiece from Hong Sangsoo. Kim Minhee (The Handmaiden, Right Now, Wrong Then)—in the role that won her the Silver Bear for best actress in Berlin—plays Younghee, an actress reeling in the aftermath of an affair with a married film director. Younghee visits Hamburg then returns to Korea, but as she meets with friends and has her fair share to drink, increasingly startling confessions emerge.
No stranger to mining his own experience for his films, Hong, whose real-life affair with Kim stirred up a media frenzy in Korea, here confronts his personal life with a newfound emotional directness. With an incredibly raw and vulnerable performance from Kim at its center, On the Beach at Night Alone is one of the most dynamic collaborations between director and performer in contemporary cinema.
“On The Beach At Night Alone” opens on November 17 in New York City at Film Society of Lincoln Center and Metrograph, and will expand in the weeks ahead.