MIFF NOTES: Right Now, Wrong Then (2015, Dir. Hong Sang-soo)

You've got to applaud Hong Sang-soo for sticking to his schtick. Actually, it seems you've got to applaud Hong Sang-soo even if you don't know he's sticking to his schtick. Well, apparently you applaud Hong Sang-soo if you don't know what his schtick is. Right Now, Wrong Then got applause in the middle of the film. Applause from those who weren't aware they were about to see the whole thing play out for a second time.

I'm sure they were pleasantly surprised, as I was when I first experienced the Korean festival stalwart's delightfully repetitive Our Sunhi a couple of years back.

And what's not to love? Hong does what he does so well. There's such clumsy self-conscious warmth to his crash zooms and random pans. He's found a visual language that complements his examinations of the complexities of social interactions and the unspoken rules that guide them.

Here, another ostensibly self-effacing Hong stand-in, Ham Cheon-soo (Jeong Jae-yeong), attempts a seduction while attending a film festival to give a lecture on his latest film (he's a director of barely seen but well-respected art films - Hong delights in playing inside the personal). Over a course of sashimi and soju, an art studio visit and a social gathering, Cheon-soo tries to talk his way into the affections of banana milk sipping beauty, Hee-jeong (Min-hee Kim).

Unfortunately, his propensity to stick to his go-to lines proves his undoing. At least the first time around.

It's the little things that make Right Now, Wrong Then as engaging as it is. The slight divergences that take the two versions of the story to different places open up a world of possibilities, not only between the two leads but with their life trajectories in general. Hong's cinematic flippancy reveals unpredictablity of the effects of our words. Not only that, he almost off-handedly puts it out there that even the most thought-through exclamations can have the opposite effect to what we desire and can set us on a completely different path. That's a huge thing when you consider it. Almost too big to contain.

But somehow Hong Sang-soo manages to. And still charm in the process.

★★★☆

Trailer:

Right Now, Wrong Then screened as part of the Melbourne International Film Festival 2016.

You can check out other films from the festival here.