The Day He Arrives

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'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.

OK, so I get that this is a foreign film, and I get that I'm supposed to be super-sensitive to cultural differences. But, and a huge BUT here, I was bored beyond tears with this one.

I'm regretfully placed in an awkward position to witness the characters stutter their way through their seemingly contrived scripts, from the tedious profile angles that the director seems to prefer. I was witness to over the top and quite frankly, ridiculous responses to otherwise benign dialogue contrivances.

I really, really tried to give this flick a chance, but I just couldn't get into it. I'm no stranger to foreign films, and watch and enjoy a number of them. This one, however, bored the living fecal matter out of me.

Joon-Sang Yoo arrives in Seoul. He has directed four movies, but they weren't popular. Now he teaches in a country school. He's in town to meet with an old friend, Sang-Jung Kim. They go to a bar, have a bit of a chat, meet with the owner who rushes n to apologize for not being there. Then the day starts to repeat, with variations.

At first I thought it was just a variation on GROUNDHOG DAY, but as time went on, I realized that it was the portrait of a man who had given up, and had become unmoored from reality. He keeps trying to get the day right, like the director he used to be -- one character, on learning he used to direct, asks "What's it like to not direct?" -- but whatever he does, no matter what he accomplishes, he finds at the end that he is where he was at the beginning, repeating the day with variations that have no effect on his fellow characters. If they had not known him when he was a director, they have no memory of him, and only the vaguest of effects on their lives.

It's creepy and sad and simply told, in elegant black and white photography. The writer/director, Sang-soo Hong is called by some "The Woody Allen of Korea." Martin Scorsese says of his movies that "everything kind of starts unassumingly - but then things unpeel like an orange". This movie fits that description. I'll keep an eye out for more of his movies.

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.