South Korea/2022—directed by Hong Sangsoo | 92 minutes

For his playful and gently thought-provoking 27th feature, Hong Sangsoo holds a mirror up to his own artistic process and asks what exactly it is we’re looking for from a work of art. To achieve this, his film takes on the perspective of a middle-aged novelist, Junhee (Lee Hyeyoung, the magnetic star of Hong’s In Front of Your Face), who's grown disenchanted with her own writing.

After visiting an old friend who now runs a bookshop outside of Seoul, she embarks on a restorative journey that leads her to a chance encounter with a famous actress and former movie star (Kim Minhee) who’s also questioning her role as an artist.

The two make an instant connection that stokes both women’s dormant creative impulses, soon providing this simple, loose-limbed tale with a deep well of emotional truth and a bounty of questions about the expectations of artmaking, culminating in an entirely unexpected, mode-shifting climax. Jury Prize Winner, 2022 Berlin Film Festival. In Korean with English subtitles.

“Exquisite! Tense, absorbing and finally enchanting.”  – Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times