Entertainment

MIFF 2016 review: Hong Sang-soo's Right Now, Wrong Then a rich and contemplative comedy

RIGHT NOW, WRONG THEN
Melbourne International Film Festival
Forum, August 12 at 11am

In Hong Sang-soo's film of small details, a poster for Boy Meets Girl – glimpsed on a wall during a party – is especially fitting; the title of Leos Carax​'s wonderful 1984 debut just  about sums up the central concern of the South Korean director's sizeable body of work. 

Kim Min-hee and Jung Jae-young in <i>Right Now, Wrong Then</i>.
Kim Min-hee and Jung Jae-young in Right Now, Wrong ThenPhoto: Supplied

His latest centres on an encounter between an arthouse director (Jung Jae-young​), in Suwon​ for a screening of one of his films, and a young artist (Kim Min-hee). 

They meet in the grounds of an old palace, begin to connect, and eventually wind up drunk as a day spills into night. 

For many filmmakers this would be the set-up for a broader narrative, yet Hong reruns precisely the same events in the film's second half, where new possibilities arise from the slightest of changes: a truth declared, a gesture. This may seem like a cheap gimmick, but it's not.

Shot through with Hong's oft-cited trademark playfulness, this is a nuanced take on relationships between the sexes, our flaws, romantic pursuits and how we connect (or don't). With deftly drawn characters, it's a rich work that is by turns contemplative and comic.