What Does That Nature Say to You
In R&A favourite Hong Sang-soo’s latest, which premiered at Berlinale, a young poet meets his girlfriend’s family for the first time.
Donghwa, a poet at the beginning of his career, drives his girlfriend Junhee home only to find himself drawn in to spend a day with her parents and sister. Donghwa is captivated by the family home, perched in the mountains amid striking scenery. Excursions to a local restaurant and a nearby attraction also take place. Junhee’s father inspects Donghwa’s car and offers him a tour of the grounds and presents him to the family dogs. Meanwhile, Junhee and her sister share their own conversations. Later, over makgeolli, the men start bonding. By dinnertime, the drunkenness takes over and the delicate courtesy begins to fray, as Junhee’s family tries to pry into who this would-be son-in-law would be.
Hong Sang-soo has crafted another of his unmistakable slice-of-life portraits. As always, the film drops us into the flow of the characters’ ordinary lives, then drifts onward, leaving them where they stand. Hong Sang-soo’s camera observes, frequently in one continuous take, the everyday interactions.
The conversations among the five characters possess the polite awkwardness of people who only just met. Nothing dramatic appears to take place, yet the cumulative effect builds to a modest climax and a resolution.
Eija Niskanen (translated by Kati Ilomäki)
Trailer
