TALE OF CINEMA    2005
(Geuk jang jeon)
Directed by Hong Sang-soo
89 minutes
In Korean with English subtitles

Hong Sang-soo is a fringe director in South Korea who hasn't been really screened much here in the west. Despite this limited exposure, he has created an incredibly varied oeuvre, and is heralded by European directors like Claire Denis. Some people have compared his cinema to Ozu, others to Eric Rohmer, and still others to Tarantino (in relation to his narrative inventiveness). Tale of Cinema was his sixth film.

The movies of Hong Sang-soo have some reoccurring themes... especially about memories, parallel events and separate realities that sometime overlap or intersect. His films are always based on his own real life experiences and the same is true of this movie, which depicts two separate stories, both about strange forms of love. And although both of these stories are anchored in their own world and seem separate while we watch them, behind the facade of everyday casualness there is a link which reveals that reality is more complicated than it seems on the surface. The first story follows a chance encounter on the street between two former lovers, and what unfolds behind the cheery initial greetings leading to a suicide pact. The second story is specifically about cinema and how it influences and molds lives.

This will be a high-definition projection.