A prickly, blocked writer makes a breakthrough in Hong Sang-soo's black-and-white film about rejuvenation and reinvention. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the Berlin Film Festival, Hong shot during the pandemic--as indicated by the face masks--and made it as a one-man band, serving as composer, cinematographer, and editor.
The 2022 film opens with bookseller Sewon (seven-time Hong performer Seo Young-hwa) and younger employee Hyun-woo (three-timer Park Mi-so) arguing loudly behind closed doors. Once they emerge, Jun-hee (Lee Hye-yeong, a veteran TV actress making a vivid impression) pretends not to have heard a thing (the argument is never explained). With her chic hairstyle, leather gloves, and e-cigarette, she looks every inch the successful author. Sewon, a former writer, gave it up years ago.
Once the atmosphere settles, Hyun-woo, a former actress, joins the two for an afternoon coffee and shares phrases in sign language, her area of study. After catching up, Jun-hee takes her leave to explore her old stomping grounds.
At a tower, she runs into filmmaker Hyo-jin (Kwon Hae-hyo). The tension in these encounters indicates that Jun-hee's frankness makes some people uncomfortable. In this case, resentment lies in his inability to bring an adaptation of one of Jun-hee's novels to life. He blames investors who didn't find her work sufficiently commercial, while Jun-hee blames him for a lack of support.
The situation grows more tense when they run into actress Kil-soo (10-timer Kim Min-hee) who has been taking time off. Hyo-jin considers it "a waste." Jun-hee finds his attitude patronizing, insisting that Kil-soo has every right to manage her career as she chooses. Jun-hee's blunt-force manner helps to explain why Hyo-jin hid from her when he first spotted the novelist.
Though everyone Jun-hee meets praises her work, she dreams of making a film, and when she meets Kil-soo's nephew, Geong-woo (Ha Seong-guk), a film student, she recruits him to collaborate with her on a short film starring Kil-soo and her husband. In private, she confesses to the actress that she feels blocked as a writer; perhaps this will free them both.
Through their conversation, she finds that Kil-soo and the bookseller are friends, leading to a second encounter between Jun-hee, Sewon, and Hyun-woo, along with Mansoo (Gi Ju-bong), a scruffy poet with whom she has a past. The novelist shocks them all by admitting she has decided to curtail her drinking for health reasons--an unusual reaction from a Hong sang-soo character. "It's okay to drink," the sozzled poet insists. "What do doctors know?"
The film ends with Jun-hee screening the finished film for Kil-soo. Hong fills the screen with the final sequence from the film-within-a-film as it switches from high-contrast black and white to saturated color, followed by a brief post-credit sequence.
It doesn't answer every question, but it's a lovely moment involving the most beautiful color palette of his career. If The Novelist's Film revolves around a writer and director who constantly surprise, Hong proves with this film, that he can, too.
Where does this title belong on library shelves?
The Novelist's Film belongs on Korean and foreign film shelves in academic and public libraries.
What kind of film series could use this title?
Hong Sang-soo's 27th feature in 26 years—his 28th, Walk Up, also premiered in 2022—would fit with a series on his women-centric titles, films about writing by directors of all cultures, or a wider survey of contemporary Korean cinema.
What type of instructors will use this title?
The Novelist's Film would fit with college-level courses on Korean culture and pandemic-era filmmaking.