Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Hong Sang-soo
Starring: Kim Min-hee, Kwon Hae-hyo, Cho Yun-hee, Ha Seong-guk, Kang Soyi
Given his prolific nature, sometimes releasing three films in a single
year, there's always a worry that the latest offering from Korean writer
Hong Sang-soo might be one of "the lesser ones."
By the Stream might be considered lesser Sang-soo by some,
but such is the nature of his filmography that his work tends to blend
together, as though he's slowly weaving a tapestry that we'll only really
be able to fully appreciate when it's finally complete. The protagonist of
By the Stream, Jeonim (the director's romantic partner and regular
collaborator Kim Min-hee), is a textile artist and in one
scene she talks about her frustration at how long it takes her to create a
single piece, measuring her output in centimetres per hour. Perhaps this
is a metaphor for how Sang-soo views his filmmaking process, working
overtime at his loom to produce as much work as he can, while he
can.
As somewhat tactlessly reminded in an early scene, Jeonim is the wrong
side of 40 (I had to look up Min-hee's real age and was shocked to learn
she is indeed in her forties, as she doesn't look a day over 30), and at
that awkward moment in a struggling artist's life where they begin to
question their dedication to their craft. Jeonim is an instructor at an
art college, that great institution that allows aging artists an outlet,
at least until the grant runs out. It's the time of year when the various
departments of the college compete in a festival of skits, and having lost
the director of her department's skit (a young man who slept with three of
his "actresses"), Jeonim gets the bright idea to enlist her
uncle Sieon (Kwon Hae-hyo), a once famous actor whose career
was derailed by some ambiguous incident.
Sieon sets about coming up with a skit and seems enlivened by this return
to the stage, no matter how small it might be. He also begins dating
Jeonim's professor and long time mentor Jeong (Cho Yun-hee),
who has long been a fan of Sieon and behaves like a giddy schoolgirl in
his company.
Like many of Sang-soo's films, By the Stream can seem
slight and inconsequential, its success ultimately dependant on what you
personally take from it. Its ambiguity may prove frustrating to some (one
of the most potentially dramatic scenes takes place off screen and we
never learn what was spoken in the encounter), but Sang-soo's concealing
of the sort of details most filmmakers would put front and centre ensures
you find yourself thinking about what he hasn't shown you, the words he's left unspoken.
In Jeonim he gives us one of his most enigmatic protagonists,
initially an almost stereotypically ditzy artist who likes to sleep
outdoors or in her studio, but we eventually begin to wonder if this is a
quirk or a necessity. Might Jeonim be homeless (she wears the same outfit
through the whole film)? Or perhaps she's avoiding her mother, whose
alcoholism and instability we learn drove Sieon away from his sister.
Like all the characters in Sang-soo's films, Jeonim likes a drink, but she
seems to feel guilty about doing so, as though worried she might have
inherited her mother's sickness. Her enrolment of Sieon seems as much of a
personal plea for help as a professional necessity, but her uncle is too
distracted by his romancing of Jeong to notice.
Sieon is something of a self-fulfilling enigma himself, keeping his
psychological cards close to his chest. In perhaps the film's most
outwardly emotional scene, a drunken Sieon asks his young performers to
take turns talking about the sort of person they each want to be. We get
the sense that in provoking this piece of raw improv, Sieon is spinning a
roulette wheel and hoping to land on one of their proclamations giving
voice to his own unspoken feelings.
These are messy and very human characters of the sort that Sang-soo has
mastered in his prolific career. But By the Stream is one of
his more humorous films, and its breezy tone means we don't really think
about the depth of it all until it's over. Watching
By the Stream is like spending time with that one friend you
know is weighed down with troubles but who keeps cracking jokes in the
hopes you won't notice their pain. It's only on the drunken bus ride home
that you start to think about certain glances, what specific words really
meant. Sang-soo's great human tapestry has just gained another few
centimetres. He's probably at his loom right now.
By the Stream is in UK cinemas
from January 31st.
