Matins calmes à Séoul

"The Day He Arrives" is a South Korean film directed by Hong Sang-soo. Beautifully shot in black and white (Shouldn't EVERY film set in winter be shot in black and white?) this film is funny, sad, touching and just a bit insane. Hopping back and forth in time and alternate universes, you see the protagonist, a "well-known filmmaker" who hasn't done anything for a while, interact with old flames and new friends upon his arrival in Seoul. You will see these interactions from different perspectives, with different outcomes, but with the same people as different characters. Confusing? Not as much as my poor description would lead you to believe. Beneath all the trappings of comedy is the story of an artist who no longer creates art, and of a human being trying to rebuild burnt bridges. A small, short, but worthwhile trip to Korean Cinema.

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This genuinely weird Korean film seemed like a fusion of "Groundhog Day" and "No Exit" but in a style that married Eric Rohmer and Woody Allen. I don't really know if I liked it or not and kind of admire it for that. A Korean film-maker, who has forsaken the art world for a simple life as a rural school-teacher, returns to Seoul to reunite with friends. The first night is an enthralling experience of great, drunken conversation on the nature of chance and identity, with much drunken lust thrown in. Each following day becomes a less satisfying copy of the first. Time has stopped, and only the director seems (semi) conscious of it. I would interpret this work as a kind of confession. The director's development has been entrapped by his vanity even as he strives for a life of modesty. Whatever else, it captures Seoul, and drunken satisfaction- be it intellectual or amorous- very nicely.

I love this kind of movies, i mean, movies with people talking and talking like there is no tomorrow and simultaneously, they are seemingly looking for love when, in reality, they are just looking to find themselves. Holywood has created the best by far movies of this genre, and i don't love Holywood recently. French cinema has his share but their movies don't hold a candle to American comedy/drama/romance movies.

I am so biased that i could easily overrate a movie like this.

THE DAY HE ARRIVES is a flawed movie. I have to be honest, dialogue feels a bit clumsy at times. Some reactions feel awkward. Maybe there is a cultural barrier that i can't break, maybe this is the way Korean people communicate to each other. In any case, this didn't feel much natural at times. But still, it was a joy to watch. I could easily watch another hour this leading character facing his personal dead-ends and emotional struggles. I empathized with him. Most of the time, it felt realistic. And i loved this "GROUNDHOG DAY" aspect, whatever it was. I loved the subtleties here as well. Some things were never told. Maybe i am wrong but i think i understood them.

In any case, this is not as good as Allen or Linklater. But still, it was good. At least, for its genre.

I'm a big fan of South Korean cinema, particularly their action thrillers, their horror films, and the art-house movies of Kim Ki-Duk, a guy who's quickly becoming one of my favourite directors. Unfortunately THE DAY HE ARRIVES is a low budget, black-and-white, arty production shot on the streets of Seoul with very little story to propel it along.

The narrative seems to involve a down-on-his-luck former director who revisits some of his old friends in the city during a long weekend. Many of the events that transpire are repetitive, with lots of piano playing, drunkenness, and visits to various restaurants and bars, but there's not really much point to this and zero explanation. There's no discernible beginning, middle or end, either. It feels like the work of a first-time director just finding his feet and asking the viewer to endure with him.

THE DAY HE ARRIVES contains lots of endless ad-libbed scenes with static camera-work. The performances are the only good thing about this; the rest of it is a bore. I was thinking this might be some GROUNDHOG DAY time loop style movie but it's far more subtle and obtuse than that, and by the time it finishes the only thing you can do is scratch your head and move on to the next movie.

This is me second Hong Sungsoo film. The first, Alone on the Beach At Night, was very good with an excellent performance by Kim Min-hee..

This is in similar territory. In real life Sungsoo had an affair with Min-hee, which became a tabloid scandal. He has apparently made several films set in and around the film world dealing with fictional variations of their story.

In The Day He Arrives, a former director returns to Soule to see an old friend and encounters a combination of former acquaintances, and new people, some of whom know him by reputation.

In very subtle ways events replay with variations. People seem unaware of previous conversations, encounters are slightly too dramatic and revealing, women react - more or less like they might be in a movie.

The movie never directly says that it's about constructing stories but there are hints. We see him writing, we hear him doing voice over that seems no more aware of other events than characters are. The overall sense is of the director character reworking his entangled life and trying to put it into a story.

Just as the real director. Hong Songsoo is doing in film after film. Highly recommend this moving, intelligent film