By Jake Howell jake.howell@utoronto.ca

Countdown To Cannes: Im Sang-soo, Hong Sang-soo

Posted Tuesday, May 8th, 2012 - 1 Comment »
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The fifth in a series of snapshots of the twenty-two filmmakers in Competition for the Palme d’Or at the sixty-fifth Festival de Cannes.

 

HONG SANG-SOO

 

Background: South Korean; born in Seoul, South Korea 1960.

Known for / style: Hahaha and The Day He Arrives; kitchen-sink / social realism; shoestring budgets; extremely dry, conversational humor; booze-soaked narratives that involve plenty of drinking and smoking

Film he’s bringing to Cannes: Da-reun na-ra-e-suh (In Another Country), a mostly English-language piece that looks at three different women named Anne, yet played by the same actress (Isabelle Huppert). Each Anne visits the same seaside town, meeting the same people. In Another Country also stars Jun-Sang Yu (Hahaha).

Notable accolades: The biggest honor Hong has under his belt is winning Cannes 2010’s Un Certain Regard program with Hahaha. Hong has also won Tokyo’s Special Jury Prize (2000’s Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors), Seattle’s 2003 Emerging Masters Showcase Award, and Asia-Pacific’s Best Director award (2002’s On the Occasion of Remembering the Turning Gate), to name a few.

Previous Cannes appearances: Hong is a regular at this event. He has had numerous films in the Official Selection (In Another Country will be his seventh), including two in Competition (2004’s Woman is the Future of Man and 2005’s Tale of Cinema) and four in Un Certain Regard (1998’s The Power of Kangwon Province, 2000’s Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, 2010’s Hahaha, and 2011’s The Day He Arrives).

Hong Sang-soo.

Could it win the Palme? The plot of In Another Country sounds simultaneously intriguing and off-putting; a surreal experience that could result in a love/hate scenario. That’s because Hong’s films are typically constructed with avant-garde tendencies, and In Another Country looks to continue that trend: Isabelle Huppert will be portraying three different characters with the same name and narrative trajectory. Huh? The problem with Hong’s golden prospects is that he and Jury president Nanni Moretti approach filmmaking very differently, meaning Moretti could foreseeably be turned off by Hong’s atypical style (Hong’s 2010 win for Hahaha was given by a Claire Denis-led jury, an avant-garde filmmaker of her own). On the other hand, Moretti’s a straight shooter. Therefore, the odds of Moretti’s jury being wooed by a film with a greater focus on continuity editing and logical flow feel considerably greater than anything else. However, like every other film in this Competition, this remains to be seen.

Why you should care: South Korea has never won the Palme d’Or, despite a consistently strong, annual representation of Korean cinema at Cannes. In addition to In Another Country, Isabelle Huppert stars in Michael Haneke’s Amour, meaning Huppert has a solid shot at winning a third Best Actress prize in 2012. Given that In Another Country will primarily focus on Huppert exploring three different characters, it should showcase her ability and range as an actress. As a director and writer, Hong Sang-soo is critically-acclaimed in South Korea, and anyone interested in natural, conversational narratives with ironic humor should look into his career. Hong’s films are organic and original, and In Another Country’s premise seems to be a synthesis of everything the director is known for.

IM SANG-SOO

 

Background: South Korean; born in Seoul, South Korea 1962.

Known for / style: The Housemaid and The President’s Last Bang; controversial films that push the envelope in South Korea; sexually-charged dramas

Film he’s bringing to Cannes: Do-nui mat (The Taste of Money), an erotic thriller following an extremely wealthy family obsessed with greed and lust. Stars include Kim Kang-woo (Hong Sang-soo’s Hahaha), Yoon Yeo-jeong (The Housemaid, Hahaha), Kim Hyo-sin (Life is Peachy), and Baek Yoon-sik (The President’s Last Bang).

Notable accolades: Im Sang-soo has been mostly unsuccessful throughout the festival circuit, accumulating only a few honors here and there at smaller Asian events. However, Im did pick up a FIPRESCI Special Mention at Pusan for 2000’s Tears, and a Best Director award at Ghent (2003’s A Good Lawyer’s Wife).

Previous Cannes appearances: Im has only played Cannes once before, with 2010’s The Housemaid. It debuted in Competition.

Im Sang-soo.

Could it win the Palme? Judging from the trailer, The Taste of Money looks to be the South Korean equivalent of your standard Hollywood sex drama (think Unfaithful or something). Here’s the thing: the theatrical release date for The Taste of Money in South Korea is May 17, which is only the second day of the Festival. This means Im Sang-soo is hoping for good press and likely nothing more. In other words, a film releasing parallel to its Cannes screening is not a film hoping to win the Palme. Why? Because good art films need to snowball through the international festivals and gain as much attention as they can, not rush out to release with zero buzz. The Taste of Money doesn’t look very artsy (which isn’t a bad thing), but it should attract healthy audiences in Asia from the known talent in the film (in addition to Im’s pedigree of pot-stirring controversy). This is mainstream fare, folks.

Why you should care: Im Sang-soo is essentially a South Korean genre director. His films are exciting and risqué, which is normally more than enough to sell a movie ticket. In terms of his latest film, the cast of The Taste of Money is strong and well-known in South Korea, which should help box-office numbers over there. While Im Sang-soo’s Palme prospects are slim in 2012 (a novelty betting website lists Im’s film with odds of 33-1), odds are The Taste of Money will be entertaining and yes, titillating. Im’s no prude.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0P_J8IriN4

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Posted in Cannes, Cannes Originals, MCN Originals, Movie City News | 1 Comment »

One Response to “Countdown To Cannes: Im Sang-soo, Hong Sang-soo”

  1. Bonjour Tristesse says:
    May 8, 2012 at 7:57 pm

    I’m very much looking forward to both films, but in particular, In Another Country. That trailer is charming, and it sounds like an interesting and unique role for Huppert.

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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon