The day he arrives
I won’t forget so easily that Pixelmatsch disliked “Night and Day” which sounds like such an unlikely thing to happen given its great premise. But since Gorp has recommended this film to us, and showed us the trailer so awesome it had to pique our interest, we knew we had to see the film some day.
I heard that all of Hong Sang-soo’s films are similar and therefore becoming repetitive, but since this one was my first, I thought it was refreshing and amusing. Even though it is about a film director’s creative block, it is one of those films like “8 1/2” or “Stardust Memories” which give it a rather amusing twist rather than being whiny. Of course this film cannot quite be compared to Fellini’s of Woody Allen’s masterpieces, especially since this one does not really take itself seriously. I really liked how it was practically the same day over and over, but completely different things happen, and even the characters are portrayed differently. As for me, I would like to interpret this story as a Rashomon-like incident of perhaps one single evening which might or might not have happened like one of the iterations of the events suggest.
More than anything, I think that this film does a wonderful job at portraying how the characters interact with each other. Especially the scene with the ex-girlfriend was absolutely awesome, and I thought it was amazingly realistic. The equivalent to this scene, the bed scene with his new ex-girlfriend (so to speak), is just as great. It is not exactly clear why these characters liked each other, but it is made obvious that they do, and their actions are so amusingly human that it almost made me laugh.
Even if Hong Sang-soo’s movies are all like this, it’s possible that I won’t get bored of it. I am sure that every film will exploit some different aspects, especially since not so much has happened in this movie after all. I want to believe that his other films could be just as interesting as this one. I should listen to Gorp’s recommendations more often – when he likes a director, chances are high that I do too.
i thought this was just a gorgeous little film. no one films collective drunks quite as endearingly as he does, and the drunkenness in this one is even subdued compared with the hilarious excess in “Like You Know It All”! to me Hong is a master amongst “verbose” filmmakers, that’s why I always found the comparison to Rohmer pretty fitting. i’ve only scratched the surface of his filmography but his is one I want to really want to delve into.
I’d just like to reiterate that after “Like you know it all!” with its delightfully aimless drunken stupor (during a PIFF! Even if it’s not ours.) I immediately reversed my opinion on him! A rewatch of “Night and Day” might be necessary, but I suppose I’ll watch “Ha Ha Ha” first.
The comparison with Rohmer seems strangely fitting!
lmao i love the part where the director is shown sleeping through the film he is supposed to judge at the film festival! and LMAO the overly eager organizer-woman!!!!!!!!! yes, his films are visually flat (as are Rohmer’s) but all his idiosyncrasies with pans and zooms are brilliantly unique and always precise.
It sounds great! Just yesterday I read another article on his movies, and it makes me more intrigued even though the author didn’t like “The day he arrives” very much.