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The Handmaiden is Park Chan-wook’s highest-rated movie after Oldboy on Prime Video. This movie is also backed by critics and currently sits at a 96% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and holds an 85 Metascore. It’s based on the work of Sarah Waters’ Fingersmith, and stars actresses Kim Tae-ri and Kim Min-hee. The movie follows Lady Hideko and Sook-hee, and the storyline is based on love, betrayal, and revenge.

While this one is definitely a must-watch, it is not without its fair share of controversies. Its explicit s*x scenes and graphic violence divided the audience. There was a huge debate on whether the lesbian s*x scenes were empowering or just catering to the male gaze.

The director himself addressed these criticisms in an interview with AfterEllen and said:

When it’s presented to me as an issue of a male gaze, I cannot deny that I myself am male.

Looking for what to see in theaters? Our feature, updated weekly, highlights our top recommendations for films currently in theaters, from new releases to restorations receiving a proper theatrical run.

While we already provide extensive monthly new-release recommendations and weekly streaming recommendations, as distributors’ roll-outs can vary, this is a one-stop list to share the essential films that may be on a screen near you.

2000 Meters to Andriivka (Mstyslav Chernov)

In 2000 Meters to Andriivka, we are thrown headfirst into war. From a first-person point of view, we live with a brigade of Ukrainian soldiers as they make their way to liberate the village of Andriivka, which is occupied by the Russians. As the Ukrainians trudge through the forest (they have to avoid the mine-filled roads) they take heavy fire from the opposition. The village is just over a mile away, a strategic power point in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.

Note: This review was originally published as part of our 2024 Locarno coverage. By the Stream opens in theaters on August 8, 2025.

The death of the author is the birth of the reader, as we know from post-structuralist thought; then again, there are Hong Sangsoo’s public remarks. A charming video I often revisit shows the South Korean filmmaker outlining his working method: script dialogue completed the day of (also common on big Hollywood productions), followed by a light-speed editing assembly. But at a public Q&a in Locarno following the premiere of his latest, By the Stream, he revealed a shift; a day now separates his writing and location-shooting. Turning over his new film and this year’s other premiere, A Traveler’s Needs, the extra hours of composition and finessing are evident.

So how about Spot the Difference––which we cynically might call being on Hong world-premiere-reviewing duty. Yet By the Stream’s departures,...

While effectively every Hong Sangsoo film nabs nice responses from those who seek it out, By the Stream has carried a tad more weight––the sense that, after a few years of particularly handmade experiments, his longest feature (still just 111 minutes) recalled the work that first enraptured so many of us. (That he now takes an extra day in his dialogue-writing might comprise the difference.) Whatever the case, another shift is encouraging. Why should Hong, whose mystique has still never dissipated, remain ever-static? Thus we’re pleased to exclusively debut a trailer for the film, which (drumroll) Cinema Guild will release on August 8 at Film at Lincoln Center. From this it’s already evident that By the Stream‘s images are a bit grander and, dare I say, opulent.

As Rory O’Connor said in his review from Locarno, “By the Stream’s departures, and relatedly its virtues, are a bit more pronounced.

Amazon’s Prime Video has a movie for just about every mood. The streamer’s film library is large and diverse and packed to the brim with both throwback and modern classics. That is true especially of the platform’s selection of psychological thrillers, which includes masterpieces from over 50 years ago, early calling cards for some of Hollywood’s biggest living directors and a few contemporary gems.

Here are the seven best psychological thrillers you can stream on Prime Video right now.

“Memento” (Newmarket) “Memento” (2000)

Part neo-noir mystery, part psychological thriller, “Memento” is the film that put writer-director Christopher Nolan on the map. Nolan’s second feature effort, the film follows Leonard Shelby (Guy Pearce), a man suffering from a form of short-term memory loss that prevents him from forming any new memories, who hunts down the person who killed his wife using a complex system of tattoos, notes and photographs.

Hollywood may dominate the global box office, but for true cinephiles, the real rite of passage begins with exploring non-English films, which are, by definition, international movies. Stories from countries/regions introduce us to different cultures and broaden our perspectives, offering a new way to see the world.

Movies like Slumdog Millionaire, from Oscar-winning director Danny Boyle, are prime examples of people, culture, and struggles shown from a foreigner’s lens. For the real taste of the world, audiences have to dive into cinema beyond Hollywood. When Bong Joon-ho accepted the Academy Award for Best Director for Parasite, he famously said, “Once you overcome the one-inch tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films.”

From action and romance to slice-of-life genre, including animated ones, this list consists of some of the best non-English films that one must definitely watch before they die. Without further ado,...

There may be no other working American actor as underrated as Sasha Lane in her generation. The 29-year-old Houston, TX native has been acting in movies and TV shows for nearly a decade now, and in that time, she's had relatively few starring roles. But her eye for projects has been consistently refined, and even her smaller performances have left an indelible mark on anyone who's been following her filmography.

It all began with the premiere of Lane's screen acting debut, "American Honey," in the main competition of the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, where she managed to steal the spotlight even next to such towering, acclaimed performances as Isabelle Huppert in "Elle," Kim Min-hee in "The Handmaiden," Sônia Braga in "Aquarius," Sandra Hüller in "Toni Erdmann," Kristen Stewart in "Personal Shopper," and Ruth Negga in "Loving." Since then, Lane has accrued just under 20 acting credits, with nearly all of those being in deeply interesting projects,...

Disney’s “A Complete Unknown” held its spot at the top of the U.K. and Ireland box office for a second weekend, earning £1.6 million ($2 million), according to numbers from Comscore. The cumulative total of the Bob Dylan biopic, starring Timothée Chalamet, now stands at $7.3 million.

In second place, Disney’s “Mufasa: The Lion King” added $1.7 million in its sixth weekend, raising its total to $34.7 million. “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” from Paramount remained steady in third, collecting $1.09 million during its fifth weekend and pushing its total to $29 million.

Lionsgate U.K.’s “Flight Risk,” directed by Mel Gibson and starring Mark Wahlberg, debuted in fourth place with a solid $1.01 million. Universal’s awards season favorite “The Brutalist” debuted in fifth, earning $938,452 in its opening weekend.

Universal’s “Nosferatu” dropped to sixth with $666,526 in its fourth weekend. The gothic horror reboot has reached $15.1 million overall and continues to attract genre enthusiasts.

Hong adds an eccentric chapter with simple charm to his many studies of middle-class Korean life, here focussing on an arts college drama class

The startlingly prolific Korean auteur Hong Sang-soo has, apparently with the ease of simply taking another breath, produced another of his lo-fi urban-pastoral comedies; these are small-scale films of Rohmeresque lightness whose regularity and resemblance to each other is such they could almost be regarded as the constituent episodes of a giant, ongoing conceptual saga about city life for Korea’s educated middle classes.

As ever, there are extended, real-time dialogue scenes, mostly shot from a single camera position – occasionally enlivened with a slight zoom or pan – which often take place in cafes or restaurants in which the characters are drinking heavily; sometimes they have outbursts, although their emotional equilibrium is restored by the end of the scene. Hong’s partner Kim Min-hee plays Jeonim, a...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. To keep up with our latest features, sign up for the Weekly Edit newsletter and follow us @mubinotebook on Twitter and Instagram.News Office Space.Some Hollywood insiders are blaming post-pandemic work-from-home policies—rather than rampant financialization and an overinvestment in stale intellectual-property tentpoles—for the industry’s recent decline.A coalition of human-rights groups have penned an open letter to Netflix demanding the renewal of its “Palestinian Stories” collection, which expired earlier this month after three years on the platform.Workers in RadicalMedia’s nonfiction division have launched a union drive, having collected an “overwhelming majority” of signature cards from the 65-person bargaining group. They plan to join the Writers Guild of America East.China will not have an Oscar entry this year, after the Academy deemed the documentary The Sinking of the Lisbon Maru (2023) ineligible for the Best Foreign Picture award,...

They say there are only three certainties in life: death, taxes, and the release of at least one new Hong Sang-soo film each year. In a career marked by extreme prolificness—”By the Stream” is his ninth film to come out this decade, which, need I remind you, is less than halfway through completion—Hong’s directorial approach has equally been marked by its own set of developments coinciding with his personal journey; minor adjustments for anyone just popping in periodically on one of his many features, but for those accustomed to his propensity for self-reflection and jarring zooms, these changes may as well be signs of a whole new artist.

In particular, this new decade seems to have brought with it a more seasoned shade of that contemplative attitude—one that recognizes the internal faults Hong would begin to examine in the previous decade, but with a newfound understanding...

Japan’s leading indie film festival, Tokyo Filmex (November 23-December 1) has unveiled the line-up for its competition, opening and closing films, and other sections.

The festival, which marks its 25th year in 2024, will open with Jia Zhang-Ke’s Caught By The Tides, which played in competition at this year’s Cannes, and close with Hong Sang-soo’s By the Stream, for which actor Kim Min-hee won the Pardo for best performance at Locarno.

The 10 competition titles include the Georgian film April, directed by Dea Kulumbegashvili, which won the special jury prize at Venice this year; Girls Will Be Girls, the...

Isabelle Huppert, Hong Sang-soo favourite stars in New York Film Festival highlight A Traveler’s Need Photo: Anne Katrin Titze

Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist (co-written with Mona Fastvold and Silver Lion Best Director winner at the Venice International Film Festival), starring Adrien Brody with Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce, Stacy Martin, Joe Alwyn, Raffey Cassidy, Emma Laird, Isaach De Bankolé, and Alessandro Nivola; Mohammad Rasoulof’s The Seed Of The Sacred Fig with Soheila Golestani, Mahsa Rostami, Setareh Maleki, Niousha Akhshi, and Missagh Zareh; Dea Kulumbegashvili’s April (Special Jury Prize in Venice) with Ia Sukhitashvili, plus Hong Sang-soo’s By The Stream, starring Kwon Haehyo, Kim Minhee, and Cho Yunhee and his A Traveler’s Needs (winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the Berlin Film Festival) starring Isabelle Huppert, round out the five early bird highlights in the Main Slate program...

by Cláudio Alves

There's an odd comfort in seeking the new Hong Sang-soo film at any given festival. Thanks to the speed at which the Korean auteur runs through production, you'll usually find one. He regularly premieres multiple features every year. Earlier in 2024, he won the Silver Bear at Berlin with A Traveler's Needs. A few months later, he was at Locarno, ready to present his overall 32nd feature-length project, By the Stream, which took the Best Performance award for Kim Min-hee's work. This second project also made it to TIFF, delighting loyal fans with a new Hong that's much like all the other Hongs that came before. That's not a dig, merely a recognition of the director's remarkable consistency…...

Hong Sang-soo’s films have tricky narrative juxtapositions and symbols that often render potentially mundane moments transcendent. In Our Day, for instance, is composed of a handful of talky plot strands that are subtly connected by props and recurring references in the dialogue. Turn away at a pivotal juncture and you risk failing to grasp the film’s anatomy, as its essence resides in how carefully and fleetingly those and other strands coalesce.

In A Traveler’s Needs, though, Hong’s sleight of hand with narrative is less consistent than usual. For a long stretch of the film’s running time, Hong appears to have built the wrong concept around the wrong actor, giving Isabelle Huppert a conceptual role that leans hard on her brand of curt whimsicality. Kim Min-hee, a veteran of similar roles in Hong’s films, as well as his partner and a key collaborator behind the scenes,...

Writer-director Hong Sang-soo’s By the Stream opens on a pastoral autumn landscape of Seoul, with a stream running toward a bridge. Wide landscape shots are unusual for Hong, and this image introduces this stream as the first of several refrains that will run through the film as, well, currents. Amid a vast narrative, especially for Hong, one that’s rich in scandals and disappointments and broken promises, there’s the relief for the characters of the stream, the foliage, and the moon. As despairing as this film can be, it also has a glow that’s reminiscent of Hong’s In Front of Your Face, only more so. This is the glow of communal rapture, the reassuring bond of community that can also be a trap.

Sitting by the stream is Jeonim (Kim Min-hee), who’s writing in a notebook, seemingly lost in reverie. Hong and Kim express more...

Fall festival season picked up this last week with Venice and Telluride, and now Toronto is just around the corner, from 5-15 September 2024. This year, we’re seeing an exciting number of festival-favorite auteurs return, including Jia Zhang-ke (“Caught with the Wind”), Kiyoshi Kurosawa (“Cloud”), Mohammad Rassoulof (“The Seed of the Sacred Fig”), and Hong Sang-soo (“By the Stream”). For those who are in Toronto and are interested in the older classics, TIFF Classics offers some delectable 4k restorations of South Asian and Iranian selects this year, including Raj Kapoor‘s classic “Awara” (1951) and Sohrab Shahid Saless‘ “Time of Maturity” (1976).

In addition to these, genre films seem to make up a healthy number of Asian selections this year. Korean blockbuster star Hyun-bin returns in Woo Min-ho’s latest historical spy movie, “Harbin,” and Tumpbal Tampubolon‘s “Crocodile Tears” promises a “slow-burning suspense thriller.” Three of the infamously-campy Midnight Madness screenings...

Seoul-based film company Finecut has secured the international distribution rights to the thriller-drama “A Girl With Closed Eyes.” Directed by Chun Sun-young in her feature film debut, the movie stars Kim Min-ha and Moon Choi. It tells the story of a woman accused of murder who claims her victim was actually her kidnapper from years ago.

Finecut picked up the rights ahead of upcoming film festivals where “A Girl With Closed Eyes” will debut. These include the Toronto International Film Festival and Busan International Film Festival in October. Kim Min-ha is well known for her leading role in the Apple TV+ series “Pachinko.” Moon Choi has appeared in several popular Korean films.

The film is backed by Solaire Partners, a venture capital firm that has supported many successful Korean movies. These include the Academy Award winning movie “Parasite” and box office hits like “Extreme Job” and “12:12: The Day.

Seoul-based Finecut has picked up international sales rights for A Girl With Closed Eyes, ahead of the film’s Toronto market screening and Busan world premiere.

The thriller-drama follows a murder suspect and a detective with a shared past, reunited through the murder of a bestselling author. A Girl With Closed Eyes is the debut feature from Chun Sun-young, whose short film Good Night was invited to Cannes Critics’ Week.

The film stars Kim Min-ha, known for her leading role of Sun-ja in Apple TV+’s Pachinko. In A Girl With Closed Eyes, she plays the role of a suspect accused of killing a famous writer, insisting he was her kidnapper back in 2002. The role of the detective is played by Moon Choi.

A Girl With Closed Eyes is presented by Solaire Partners LLC, a venture capital firm that has backed box office hits including Parasite,...

Occasionally here in Asian Movie Pulse, we joke about Hong Sang-soo films, that maybe we should also have the same review written once, and just change it a bit every time a new movie of his comes out. The fact remains though, that his success in the festival circuit continues, with “By the Stream” winning an award in Locarno (as usual), this time for Kim Min-hee, as the Best Performance in the international competition.

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This time, there is more of a script here, a more concrete basis where all the eating, drinking and talking revolves around. Jeon-im is a lecturer at a Seoul’s women’s college and a textiles artist, who, as the movie begins, has invited her uncle, former actor and director Si-eon, in order to devise a theatrical skit for the remaining members of a troupe from...

Saulė Bliuvaitė with her Golden Leopard for Toxic Photo: Locarno Film Festival / Ti-Press Saulė Bliuvaitė's debut feature Toxic Toxic (Akiplėša) has won the Golden Leopard top prize at the Locarno Film Festival.

Her drama is a gritty coming-of-ager, with experimental touches, set in a bleak industrial town in Lithuania. It also took home the First Feature award. The Special Jury Prize went to Moon, directed by Kurdwin Ayub, about a kickboxer who takes on a job as a personal trainer in the Middle East.

It has been a good week for Lithuania, with Laurynas Bareiša’s Drowning Dry also picking up multiple prizes. A puzzle box of a film, set around a family tragedy, it won the Best Director Leopard plus two of the gender-neutral acting awards for Gelminė Glemžaitė, Agnė Kaktaitė, Giedrius Kiela and Paulius Markevičius.

The other acting prize went to Kim Minhee for Hong Sangsoo’s By The Stream.

Lithuanian cinema, not typically that well represented on the international film festival circuit, was the big story of this year’s Locarno Film Festival awards ceremony, with two films from the Baltic nation taking a number of top prizes between them.

“Toxic,” an auspicious debut from writer-director Saulė Bliuvaitė, won not only the Golden Leopard for Best Film in the fest’s premier International Competition — from a jury chaired by Austrian auteur Jessica Hausner — but also, in an unusual double, the top prize in the separately juried First Feature Competition. Bliuvaitė’s compatriot Laurynas Bareiša, meanwhile, won Best Director in the International Competition for his sophomore feature “Drowning Dry,” while the same film’s ensemble also collectively took one of the jury’s gender-neutral acting prizes.

A hard-hitting study of alliances and rivalries between teenage girls enrolled at a modeling school in small-town Lithuania, “Toxic” stood out in the Competition...

Toxic (Akiplėša), the debut feature from Saulė Bliuvaitė, has won the 2024 Golden Leopard, the top prize at the Locarno Film Festival.

Toxic follows two teenage girls from a bleak industrial town who join an extreme local modelling school. Featuring a cast of non-actors, it was selected for Les Arcs work-in-progress programme in 2023, and was also a prize-winner at Meeting Point Vilnius this year.

Bendita Film Sales are handling sales. The film also won Locarno’s Swatch first feature award.

The Golden Leopard for best film includes a cash prize of Chf 75,000 to be shared equally between the film’s director and producer.

Akiplėša (Toxic), the feature debut from Lithuanian writer and director Saulė Bliuvaitė that explores the human body and mysterious model agencies, is the winner of the Locarno Film Festival’s 2024 international competition, which was honored with the Pardo d’Oro, or Golden Leopard, in the Swiss town on Saturday. Locarno77 organizers called the movie “an incisive portrayal of teenage girls and the crushing expectations imposed upon them.”

Meanwhile, the special jury prize went to Iraq-born Austrian auteur Kurdwin Ayub for her sophomore fiction feature Mond (Moon). The film follows former martial artist Sarah who leaves Austria to train three sisters from a wealthy Jordanian family. “It’s all about sisters, no matter where they come from, and about cages, no matter where they are,” according to Ayub.

Lithuania, which has a population of about three million people but was represented by two features in this year’s Locarno international competition,...

“By the Stream,” the 32nd feature by Hong Sangsoo, opens as many of the previous 31 have, with a polite meeting between two softly acquainted people — neither strangers nor as familiar to each other as they might once have been. Tentative pleasantries are exchanged, before one says to the other, “You haven’t changed at all.” It’s a premature observation, of course: The ensuing action, such as it is, shows either how much has changed between the two, or how much they’ve forgotten along the way. Distinguished from other Hongs like it by its light autumnal chill and accompanying russet palette, this subtle comedy of actors, academics and dreams set to one side welcomes the director’s steadfast fans like a gentle but hesitant embrace.

Premiering in competition at the Locarno Film Festival, the prolific South Korean’s second feature of 2024 — following the Isabelle Huppert-starring Berlinale prizewinner “A Traveler’s Needs...

“By the Stream” (aka “Suyoocheon”), the latest work by prolific South Korean minimalist director Hong Sang-soo, is set to release in North American theaters next year.

Rights were acquired by Brooklyn-based distributor Cinema Guild from sales agent, Seoul, Korea-based Finecut. Both companies have handled many of the director’s previous works.

The picture will have its world premiere in competition this month at the Locarno Film Festival. It will subsequently play at the New York Film Festival and other festival berths are expected to be announced in the coming weeks.

Hong is known for his micro-budget, minimalist drama films that are long on conversation, chance encounters and female protagonists. He also likes to work with a tight-knit circle of actors.

The new film is Hong’s 32nd as director. It takes him back to the campus setting of films like “Oki’s Movie” from 2010 and “Our Sunhi” from 2013. A press...

Renowned Korean filmmaker Hong Sang-soo’s delicate and thought-provoking new movie, In Our Day, weaves together the stories of two Seoul-based artists. Released in 2022, the film stars Hong’s longtime collaborator Kim Min-hee as well as veteran actor Ki Joo-bong. Through their engaging performances and Hong’s signature subtle yet resonant style, In Our Day invites reflection on life, work, and creativity at different stages.

The movie presents two parallel tales, alternating between poet Hong Ui-ju and actress Sang-won. Ui-ju, played brilliantly by Ki, has found unexpected popularity late in his career and ponders his art and legacy. Sang-won, embodied vividly by Kim, has walked away from acting and stays with a friend, mulling her next steps. Though the characters never meet, their worlds overlap in intriguing ways that Hong explores with finesse through economical yet poignant scenes.

Shot on digital with Hong’s trademark restrained technique, In Our Day possesses a calm,...

Taking place August 7-17, the official selection for the 77th Locarno Film Festival has been unveiled, featuring a stellar-looking slate of highly anticipated films. Highlights include Hong Sangsoo’s second feature of the year, By the Stream, starring Kim Minhee, Kwon Haehyo, and Cho Yunhee; Ramon Zürcher’s The Sparrow in the Chimney, Wang Bing’s second part of his Youth trilogy, Youth (Hard Times), as well as new films by Radu Jude, Bertrand Mandico, Courtney Stephens, Ben Rivers, Gürcan Keltek, Denis Côté, Kevin Jerome Everson, Fabrice Du Welz (featuring Abel Ferrara!), and many more. Also of particular note is the world premiere of Tarsem Singh’s restored cut of The Fall, which features a slightly different edit as he recently noted.

Giona A. Nazzaro, Artistic Director of the Locarno Film Festival said, “We are very excited and happy with our selection for Locarno’s 77th edition, which we believe...

The Locarno Film Festival (August 7-17) has revealed the line-up for its 77th edition, with directors including Hong Sangsoo, Wang Bing and Ben Rivers world premiering their latest films in its international competition.

Playing out of competition at Locarno are world premieres from directors including Radu Jude, Fabrice du Welz, Aislinn Clarke, Bertrand Mandico, and Marco Tullio Giordana. Locarno’s famed Piazza Grande screenings include world premieres from Paz Vega, César Díaz and Gianluca Jodice.

Locarno’s international competition comprises 17 films, all of them world premieres, which will vie for the coveted Golden Leopard awards.

Scroll down for full line-up...

Switzerland’s Locarno Film Festival will debut 17 world premieres, including new works by Hong Sang-soo and Wang Bing, as part of its 2024 competition program. This year’s event runs from August 7 – 17.

The festival announced its competition lineups this morning. The Hong Sang-soo feature is titled Suyoocheon (By The Stream) and stars Kim Minhee, Kwon Haehyo, and Cho Yunhee. The Wang Bing feature is a France, Luxembourg, and Netherlands co-production titled Hard Times. Scroll down to see the full Locarno competition lineup, which also includes new titles from Ben Rivers, Mar Coll, and Christoph Hochhäusler.

The festival today also announced that French acting veterans Mélanie Laurent and Guillaume Canet will receive the event’s honorary Excellence Award Davide Campari at the opening ceremony on August 7. Previous recipients of the award include Riz Ahmed and Aaron Taylor Johnson.

Locarno’s separate Piazza Grande lineup features 18 titles, including Mohammad Rasoulof’s The Seed of the Sacred Fig,...

The ReportImage: Amazon

Even if it might be harder to navigate than any of its top-tier streaming peers, Amazon Prime Video still boasts a wide selection of films, including plenty of older movies that places like Netflix simply don’t care to host. That said, its turnover is frequent and subtle.

Babes by Pamela Adlon, co-written and starring Ilana Glazer, debuts in limited release with films by Hang Song-soo and Bertrand Bonello and docs on a controversial Venice Biennale, ground-breaking female clerics, and the Blue Angels Navy Squadron. A trio of festival favorites expand. While eyes now are on fare at Cannes — where Neon has been making high-profile moves — each week Stateside remains a test of indie film’s theatrical boundaries in a post-Covid, streaming-centric marketplace.

There have been notable hits. A24’s I Saw The TV Glow by Jane Schoenbrun is having a nice run so far as is Evil Does Not Exist — Sideshow/Janus Films’ second outing with Ryusuke Hamaguchi after Oscar-winning Drive My Car. (That 2021 Japanese film about a...

Writing and directing your 30th feature film is a milestone that few filmmakers ever reach, and likely prompts a bit of introspection. It could be seen as an opportunity for reinvention and experimentation now that your legacy is secure, or it could be justification to double down on the traits that made you so successful in the first place.

Hong Sang-soo takes the latter approach with “In Our Day,” a film that sees him playing many of his greatest stylistic hits. There’s an excellent performance from Kim Min-hee, a script that’s divided into separate vignettes, lengthy shots that afford actors the room to dive into their characters’ subtlest mannerisms, and of course, bottles of soju that lurk over the story like a Chekhov’s Gun as we wait for everyone to begin imbibing and sharing their true feelings. It’s the kind of film that might be described...

Death, taxes, and one-to-three Hong Sang-soo movies per year. I much prefer the latter, and it’s nice knowing we’re just a month out from In Our Day, his 30th feature and latest on which he serves as director, writer, producer, cinematographer, and composer. Following last year’s Directors’ Fortnight debut, the film begins a rollout on May 17 at Film at Lincoln Center before expanding; naturally, there is a trailer.

As Michael Frank said in his review, “In Our Day remains straightforward in its filmmaking, attaining depth through dialogue designed to cause the viewer to think about the value and meaning of the art they consume––among other things, the film itself. It’s cyclical in a way, and Hong knows that, adding to his collection of understated, underseen films with great performances.”

Find the preview below:

Sangwon (Kim Minhee), an actress recently returned to South Korea, is temporarily staying with her friend,...

You’d be forgiven for not having seen every Hong Sangsoo movie. The South Korean director, known for films like “On the Beach at Night Alone,” “Claire’s Camera,” and “The Novelist’s Film” has released 29 features, and often more than one in the same year. So was the case for 2023, which saw the festival circuit premieres of “In Water” and “In Our Day.” And as of writing, Hong already has another movie that premiered at the Berlinale, “A Traveller’s Needs.” A new Hong movie is always a pleasure to celebrate, and so IndieWire shares the exclusive trailer for “In Our Day” ahead of the upcoming release from Cinema Guild. Watch below.

Here’s the synopsis for the film:

Sangwon (Kim Minhee), an actress recently returned to South Korea, is temporarily staying with her friend, Jungsoo (Song Sunmi), and her cat, Us. Elsewhere in the city, the aging poet Hong Uiju (Ki Joobong) lives alone,...

Hong Sang-soo's movies capture the beauty of everyday life, focusing on daily rituals and small moments of gratitude. His films maintain a consistent style and thematic approach, depicting life as circular, stable, and serene. The inclusion of Kim Min-hee as his muse has had a significant impact on Hong's career, adding a personal and heartfelt element to his storytelling.

Hong Sang-soo has become a fixture in the world's most revered film festivals, the fruit of the audience's great admiration for his approach to everyday mundanity. The South Korean filmmaker made his feature debut in 1996 and has, ever since, remained one of the most active film directors of his generation, totaling over 30 movies in nearly 30 years of his career.

The beauty in Hong's movies is plain to see: in daily remarks, small celebrations, and tokens of gratitude. His style hasn't changed much over the years, but all of his...

After a career as producer and few short films, independent director Kim Cho-hee brings to light her debut feature, “Lucky Chan-sil”, a charming story of, well … a film producer, dealing with the challenges that life throws at her. Like many of this year's movies, her work was caught in the COVID19 storm, just in between Festival runs and (cancelled) theatrical releases; therefore, after gaining a rich palmarès in Festivals (Kbs Independent Film Award and the Cgv Arthouse Award at Biff and the Audience Award at the Seoul Independent Film Festival), got stalled abruptly. Hopefully not for long.

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Offbeat sweet ‘n' sour comedy “Lucky Chan-sil” follows the titular character, an indie film producer in her forties played by Gang Mal-geum, going through a moment of intense crisis. She has dedicated her work-life and career to the same director, a well-known auteur,...

When Hong Sang-soo made his directorial debut in 1996, with the movie The Day a Pig Fell Into a Well, it marked the beginning of one of the most prolific careers of any modern auteur. time that the world was able to see the man who has now become such a prolific director. Now, with thirty films under his belt, Hong Sang-soo established himself as one of the leading and most important South Korean directors of his generation. Film festivals and cinephiles alike have loved his movies, which often deal with everyday problems and debates about the philosophical elements of the mundane, relationships, and art. He’s become well-known and award-winning for his defined style, which can be seen evolving throughout the year and his filmography, and collaborations with actress Kim Min-hee.

Hong’s latest film is In Our Day, which is one of two films he premiered in 2023 (the other...

Let’s not be quite so declarative as to insist there are only two types of cinephile, but among the many varieties that exist, there are those who have never managed to connect with Hong Sang-soo’s ongoing movie project, and those who can watch a minutes-long sequence of Kim Min-hee petting and feeding an already portly cat, and think ecstatically “This is cinema!” The former type will know by now to steer wide clear of “In Our Day,” which will look to them like yet another reinvention of Hong’s eternal mandala-wheel of talky two-shots, unadorned aesthetics and glancing, enigmatic, echoing themes. The latter type will love it for much the same reasons, and may even find themselves surprised by a film that, while not as robust in construction as recent career highlight “Walk Up,” does work in new elements, amongst so much that is welcomingly familiar.

One obvious new development is intertitles,...

Like other Hong Sang-soo films, In Our Day passes, on the surface, for simple fare. The prolific South Korean director layers weighty themes amidst naturalistic filmmaking, almost documentary-style in his willingness to let the camera sit without needing any extra flourishes. Cutting between two scenes––both playing out over a single afternoon––Hong focuses his energy on the dialogue between his characters, on the rapid intergenerational misconceptions. In doing so he muses on the pessimism of art, the somewhat meaningless nature of life, and how we interpret the actions and words of our fictional heroes.

In one scene, a student goes to visit Ui-ju (Ki Joo-bong), a poet who lives like a hermit, drinking his days away. In the other, a young woman visits her cousin, a former actress named Sang-won (Kim Min-hee) who’s disillusioned by the roles she’s been given, due to lack of autonomy on set.

Hong Sang-soo’s In Our Day is composed of two alternating strands, both pivoting on conversations between artists and their acolytes. The film has no plot in the conventional sense, even by Hong’s spare standards, and the audacious structural gamesmanship of films like Walk Up has been abandoned. In Our Day is meant to feel tossed-off, though Hong’s braiding of scenes—by echoes, symbols, and subjects—is characteristically deliberate.

The uninitiated may find In Our Day baffling or uneventful, as inscrutability is a risk that Hong is willing to run for his art, but for the admirer the familiarity of Hong’s subjects and patterns is pleasing and reflective of a working ethos so obsessive that it’s become a life philosophy. Hong keeps chipping away at the mandates of commercial narrative cinema, fashioning a radical cinema aesthetic that abounds in the fleeting observational textures of poetry or journals.

Back in 2010, screenwriter director Lee Jeong-beom's “The Man from Nowhere” which starred Won Bin, was the highest grossing film in South Korea. Best known for its amazing and thrilling action sequences, the film had fans longing for more from Lee. Therefore it is not really a surprise that he would follow it up with yet another action thriller that featured even more spectacular action but with a similar theme.

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South Korean screen veteran Jang Dong-gun, best known for “Friends” (2001) and “Taegukgi: The Brotherhood of War” (2004) and one of the country's most recognized and bankable stars plays Gon, a Korean-born but raised in America hitman. As it happens, a Korean company man is selling information to the Russians in the back room of a nightclub. Assigned to retrieve it, Gon calmly shows up and effortlessly takes out everyone there but...

By Khushi Jain

Can the theory of art help develop the theory of being? Or perhaps the theory of art is the theory of being? The conversationalists in Hong Sang-soo's latest feature “In Our Day” immerse themselves in these questions over bowls of spicy ramyeon and the company of a fat and fluffy cat. The film's calm and observant engagement with such universal creative and existential material made it the perfect way to close the 2023 edition of Directors' Fortnight at Cannes. A dissertation on routine, “In Our Day” is a nihilistic cinematic game of rock-paper-scissors with several bottles of soju.

In Our Days screened at Cannes Official poster – 76th edition © Photo © Jack Garofalo/Paris Match/Scoop – Création graphique © Hartland Villa

The film runs on two parallel strands of a threadbare narrative. Sang-won (Kim Min-hee) is an actress in her 40s, staying with her friend Jung-soo and her cat ‘Us.

There are only two days left until Cannes 2023 comes to a close, and much like yesterday, things have seemed a bit quiet. The movie on most everyone’s lips, at least if social media is any indicator, was Trần Anh Hùng’s period drama “The Pot au Feu,” a feature that, according to TheWrap’s Ben Croll in his review, “might very well be the most handsomely shot and soothingly felt serving of art house food porn ever brought to screen. It’s about to become your mother’s favorite film, and it’s an absolute delight.”

But before the screening started, as Variety reported, a demonstration in support of Indigenous land rights took place on the film’s red carpet. It was led by the directors and actors of “The Buriti Flower,” a film showing in Un Certain Regard directed by Portugal’s João Salaviza and Renée Nader Messora.

“In Our Day,” the new Hong Sang-soo film premiering later this week as the Cannes Film Festival’s closing night film, has been acquired by Cinema Guild. A theatrical release is planned following its North American festival premiere later this year.

The picture stars Kim Min-hee, Song Seon-mi, Gi Ju-bong and Ha Seong-guk. This character dramedy marks Hong’s 30th feature film, this time using long, elaborate takes to articulate simple pleasures like an interspecies encounter, the discovery of a new drink and a game of rock, paper, scissors.

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“Adding to the rich tableau of his work, Hong Sang-soo’s ‘In Our Day’ not only makes us laugh, it makes us think about what it means to be alive,” Cinema Guild president Peter Kelly said in a statement. “It’s a gift that we hope continues and continues.

Hong Sang-soo’s latest film “In Our Day,” which will premiere on closing night of Cannes’ Directors Fortnight, has been acquired by Cinema Guild for North America.

Cinema Guild will release the film in theaters following its North American festival premiere later this year.

“In Our Day” stars Kim Minhee as Sangwon, an actress who has recently returned to South Korea and is temporarily staying with her friend, Jungsoo (Song Sunmi), and her cat, Us. Elsewhere in the city, the aging poet Uiju (Ki Joobong) lives alone, his cat having recently passed away. On this ordinary day, each of them has a visitor: Sangwon is visited by her cousin, Jisoo (Park Miso) and Uiju, by a young actor,

Jaewon (Ha Seongguk). Each of them wants to learn about a career in the arts, but they also

have bigger questions.

Hong’s 30th feature outing, “In Our Day” demonstrates a new...

While it certainly wasn’t a surprise in the lineup, one of our most-anticipated films premiering at Cannes––specifically at Directors’ Fortnight––is the 30th feature film from Hong Sangsoo. Following the radical formal gamble of In Water at Berlinale earlier this year, In Our Day seems to return the prolific South Korean director to a more familiar mode. Starring Ki Joobong, Kim Minhee, Song Sunmi, Park Miso, Ha Seongguk, Kim Seungyun, the film clocks in at 84 minutes and ahead of a premiere on May 25, the first festival trailer has now arrived.

Here’s the synopsis from the festival website: “In Seoul, two alternating conversations: an actress is solicited by an amateur; an old poet hosts a fan. The two stars dodge the existential questions of their guests with food, alcohol, guitar playing and naps, games with a cat and rock, paper, scissors. The actress is thinking of giving up...

The Cannes Directors’ Fortnight lineup has been unveiled ahead of this year’s festival.

Set for May 16 through May 27, the Directors’ Fortnight will debut 20 feature films and 10 short films this year.

Cédric Kahn’s “The Goldman Case” is the opening night selection. The film centers on the 1976 trial of left-wing revolutionary Pierre Goldman who was convicted of multiple armed robberies and later murdered.

Korean director Hong Sangsoo’s “In Our Day” will conclude the festival. The feature stars Kim Minhee and Ki Joobong in parallel stories of cat owners grappling with their felines’ respective mortality.

Directors’ Fortnight highlights also include Oscar winner Michel Gondry’s French comedy “The Book of Solutions,” starring Pierre Niney as a filmmaker with writer’s block. The film marks “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” director Gondry’s first feature in seven years.

“Good Time” director of photography Sean Price William makes his directorial feature...

The Cannes Directors’ Fortnight sidebar has unveiled its 2023 lineup, which will feature new films from arthouse favorites Hong Sang-soo, Michel Gondry and Cédric, Kahn as well as a broad selection from up-and-coming international directors.

Gondry’s French-language comedy The Book of Solutions, the first film in seven years from the Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Science of Sleep director, is a clear Fortnight highlight this year. Franz and Yves Saint Laurent star Pierre Niney plays the lead as a director dealing with a creative block. The project was a hot seller for Kinology at the Cannes market last year.

The phenomenally-productive Hong Sangsoo will close this year’s Fortnight section with In Our Day, a drama starring Kim Minhee as a 40-something woman temporarily living at the home of a friend and Ki Joobong as a 70-something man living alone. Both receive visitors, eat noodles, and talk.

Leading indie sales agent Finecut has picked up international rights to “In Our Day” by idiosyncratic South Korean director Hong Sang-soo. The film is set as the closing title of the Directors’ Fortnight sidebar of the Cannes festival.

Hong, who works on low budgets, controls much of the production process and makes repeated use of a small pool of actors, is one of the most prolific feature directors in the world. This is already his second feature this year. His earlier, “In Water” played in the Encounters section at Berlin in February

His films are known for their minimalist style, a focus on female characters, serial chance encounters and oblique references to the media industry. On paper, “In Our Day” fits exactly in that groove.

Finecut pitches the synopsis as: “A woman in her early 40s, is temporarily living at the home of a friend, who is raising a cat.