In Our Day

Auch dieses Werk des Meisters verführt sehr zur Reflexion über die Frage, ob Hong eigentlich (bekennender) Buddhist ist. Es gibt zwei Orte und Personen-Konstellationen, sie werden jeweils durch Texttafeln eingeführt: Ex-Schauspielerin Sangwon (Kim Minhee) ist bei einer Freundin untergekommen und denkt über ihre weitere Karriere nach, Schriftsteller Uiji (Ki Joobong) hat Besuch von einer Filmstudentin, die eine Doku über ihn dreht. In beiden Settings treten weiters junge Schauspieler:innen auf den Plan, die grundsätzliche Fragen über die Kunst und das Leben stellen. Die Antworten sind schlicht und eben deshalb ungemein ergreifend. (Katja Wiederspahn)

Hong Sangsoo’s 30th feature presents a narrative structure he has never explored before. Two stories of intergenerational transmission alternate back and forth, each set in a unique corner of Seoul, populated by three characters and introduced by chapter headings that add psychological nuance to seemingly mundane events. In one, a former actor spends a few days at her friend Jisoo’s apartment, where she’s visited by a novice looking for advice; in the other, an aging poet visited by a documentary filmmaker and an admirer seeking answers to his philosophical and moral questions. While some generic objects—a guitar, some spicy noodles—seem to move between the two plotlines, they otherwise seem unrelated and temporally heterogeneous. So what is this collective instance that the title hints at, apart from the beautiful cat called “Us” whose disappearance plunges Jisoo into a state of desolation? Are the characters living the same day, are they even part of the same world? While some clues may be gathered along the way, the alternating structure necessarily invites the audience to question what it means to be connected or separate in turn—the sorrows of parting, and the reasons to live on in spite of it all. (Antoine Thirion)

Hong Sangsoo: VIRGIN STRIPPED BARE BY HER BACHELORS (2000), TALE OF CINEMA (2005), WOMAN ON THE BEACH (2006), NIGHT AND DAY (2008), HA HA HA (2010), IN ANOTHER COUNTRY (2012), NOBODY’S DAUGHTER HAEWON (2013), OUR SUNHI (2013), HILL OF FREEDOM (2014), CLAIRE’S CAMERA (2017), THE DAY AFTER (2017), GRASS (2018), HOTEL BY THE RIVER (2018), THE WOMAN WHO RAN (2020), INTRODUCTION (2021), IN FRONT OF YOUR FACE (2021), THE NOVELIST’S FILM (2022), WALK UP (2022), IN WATER (2023)