Necesidades de una viajera

This has to be the worst film I've seen in a long time. Story line looks and sounds like day one improvisation at a high school drama club. A long zoom into a dog has to be the Director mocking anyone who has been foolish enough to have spent their hard cash and time on this film. The actors must have wondered what the hell was going on, whilst making this awful drama. The colour and contrast was flat, don't know if this was a deliberate attempt to make this film even more boring. How this was ever financed I don't know. I would be embarrassed to put my name to this farce. Don't waste your time.

Super typical Hong Sang-soo storyline. But this time, Director Hong turned the means into ends, and returned to the alienation and closeness between people. There are many factors, and language became a more core means to process and apply.

Huppert's appearance adds a layer of depiction of strangers to the film in addition to the discussion of people themselves, acting as a cultural intruder. Whether communication problems caused by language barriers can effectively reveal people's identity. Repetition and variation are Hong Sang-soo's tricks, but they are also our lives.

From this development, Director Hong still likes to express his feelings directly. Discuss this inevitable struggle for subjectivity. Director Hong's little humor still works, just take a look and watch it.

Hong Sang-soo has finally made an action film. Of course not. Again, this is much more of the same from Hong, to the point where this will blend into all his other films with a struggle for differentiation. Even the fact Isabelle Huppert stars has no unique value, starring now in her third collaboration with the director - not my favourite of his works, I might add.

The premise for this comes from an interesting place. Iris (Huppert) is a French woman living in Seoul, a seemingly accomplished French teacher, though conducts her lessons largely in English. But on entering her second lesson with Won-ju (Lee Hye-young) and her watching husband Hae-soon (Kwon Hae-hyo), we learn she is a complete novice, trying out teaching as she spends her days wandering.

The couple are sceptical, but sit out the lesson nonetheless. Conversing, and drinking (as is Hong's way), in English, we have a repetition of the conversation with her earlier student. It appears Koreans only learn certain stock phrases when studying English. Iris wants people to express more.

This, therefore, is the set-up for much of the conversation and drinking Hong films rely so much upon. Iris encourages her students to open up more and more; to dig a little deeper until they find what they truly want to express. A quick translation into French is scribed, with the student given the note to learn by rote. That way, they will be able to express themselves more in French than any vocabulary textbook will teach them.

Along her journeys, Iris encounters some Korean poetry, which is quickly translated for her, furthering her belief to learn more about a culture from a short text rather than a full vocabulary. This idea, while key, doesn't perhaps sustain a film entirely on its own. Though Hong's films maybe never fully satisfy, despite the enjoyment they offer. As ever, it is long discussion to get to a realised argument.

It is beyond this idea, however, where the film falters a little. Iris is living with a younger Korean poet, In-guk (Ha Seong-guk). Awkwardly, his mother visits, and Iris makes herself scarce. What follows is a fairly typical debate between parent and child as to concerns over the unconventional relationship. While perfectly serviceable, it doesn't perhaps have the charm of much of Hong's dialogues.

It also weakens Iris' role. Much like "In Another Country" (2012), Huppert comes off as simultaneously charming, awkward and vulgar, to the point where you're not quite sure how to take her. The last half hour, therefore, confuses what was up until then a well-worked piece on the nature of travel, translation and expression.

We do not need to speak a language fluently to understand and experience a culture. In fact, that knowledge may limit us to generic platitudes. As a traveller, it is more important to keep an open mind.

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"Yeohaengjaui Pilyo" is a film that stirs the pot of artistic debate. While it aims to blend the subtleties of cultural exchange with personal growth, its execution falls short, presenting a tableau that feels unfinished. The narrative, which follows a French woman's journey of self-discovery in Korea through teaching and learning, is marred by a meandering pace and underdeveloped character arcs. The director, while respected by critics, seems to have missed an opportunity to polish this story into the gem it could have been. Critics and audiences alike must ask: does the film's reputation hinge on its director's past accolades, or does it stand on its own merits? It's essential to strip away the veneer of prestige and evaluate the film's true artistic value. As it stands, this cinematic piece requires a more critical eye and honest discourse to elevate the conversation around taste and artistry in film. Shameful!

As usual, Hong Sang-soo provides a typical simple, dialogue-filled, and character exploration narrative on the concept of closeness within individuals, alienation, and conversations. Sang-soo always provide some art-house dramatic works that resembles the work for Eric Rohmer's in the modern generation and is filled with likable characters, solid performances, and dialogue that are most of the time, feeling of the lessons from a poetic novel or realistic conversations.

With the simple production, writing and direction, Sang-soo does drift away from some of the focus within the narrative but as a whole, it stands out as another solid work from Hong.