In one other world there’s a Hong Sang-soo Cinematic Universe, the place a rabid fandom celebrates the one or two films yearly that includes a revolving door not of acquainted superheroes however of poets, filmmakers and actors, every of them contending with questions of life and love reasonably than planetary threats. These parts, of artists in quotidian situations, ingesting soju and smoking amid on a regular basis dialog, are current in lots of the small humanist gems that make up this South Korean auteur’s filmography, and the identical goes for his newest, “In Our Day.”
The movie, as heat and clever as it’s easy and languid, follows two separate events (diptychs are one other Hong trademark) throughout a single afternoon. One includes Sangwon (Kim Min-hee, Hong’s frequent collaborator and offscreen companion), an actress pondering retirement, as she spends the day along with her pal and her youthful cousin; the opposite includes Uiju (Ki Joo-bong), an outdated poet meting out life classes in his residence to 2 college college students, one among whom is filming him for a documentary.
The 2 story strains don’t cross paths, as they usually do in Hong’s movies; they’re united solely by the deployment of a culinary hack: mixing sizzling pepper paste into ramyun. His gochujang-inflected noodles present a easy pleasure made all of the extra satisfying in current days for Uiju, who, on physician’s orders, is abstaining from ingesting and smoking. However he can’t fairly resist on both entrance, reflecting a sentiment from early within the movie when Sangwon, providing up treats to a pal’s cat, says, “What’s the purpose of residing, anyway? Eat your fill.”
It’s a glimmer of existential knowledge buried within the mundane, if you happen to have a look at it the fitting method. A lot of the movie is made up of those moments. Isn’t life like that, too? To seek for or count on extra could be to court docket disappointment. “Don’t search for which means. That’s cowardice,” Uiju tells a younger pupil looking desperately for grand solutions. “Simply bounce within the water. Don’t strive understanding all of it earlier than leaping, like a coward.”
In Our Day
Not rated. In Korean, with subtitles. Operating time: 1 hour 23 minutes. In theaters.
