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Any US release of Grass on the horizon -- or do I have to bite the bullet and order the $35 Korean release?

Grasshopper has the rights so maybe.

Michael Kerpan wrote: Wed Feb 12, 2020 5:16 pm Any US release of Grass on the horizon -- or do I have to bite the bullet and order the $35 Korean release?

Cinema Guild has it but I think it's only available at institutional pricing. I would think they'd put it out eventually as along with Grasshopper, they are the go-to Hong Sangsoo distributors in the US.

edit: here is a link http://store.cinemaguild.com/nontheatri ... /2611.html

This thread bump made me realize that Hong didn't release a film in 2019 (let alone three). Has he been in prison or traction?

He has a film in the can so maybe he was just taking a break.

The Korean release is a comparative bargain, then.

The Woman Who Ran is premiering at the Berlin Film Festival later this month.

I mentioned my love for Hotel by the River in the Cinema Guild thread. I find the ending incredibly moving, especially that final shot.

Spoiler

The sons finding their father dead is so gd wrenching (and, I feel, realistic). The next, last shot of Kim Min-hee having a distressing dream has a certain ineffability about it and has really haunted me since seeing it last year.

I think Grass is great, too, and I really dig the trailer (don't know if CG put this together or if is basically the Korean trailer overlaid with English text).

I'm not as fluent in Hong as most of you here. I've seen almost half of his films and can say that on the whole that I prefer the more recent ones (Beach, Hotel, Grass, Right Now, Wrong Then) to the two earlier ones I've seen (Woman is the Future of Man, Tale of Cinema). I know some of you rate his first three features in particular, though, and I still intend to check them out.

Someone also needs to put out The Hill of Freedom in the US or UK. It's a really fun film, and it's his only feature not to have had a proper English subtitled release.

zedz wrote: Wed Feb 12, 2020 6:57 pm This thread bump made me realize that Hong didn't release a film in 2019 (let alone three). Has he been in prison or traction?

This is gossipy speculation, but I imagine a lot of Hong's time and energy last year was taken up by the last stages of his long-running divorce suit, which finally failed due to an outdated law holding that the party determined at fault for the breakdown of a marriage can't unilaterally end it. That wrapped up in June and he was apparently filming The Woman Who Ran in early November, so I guess he took some time to wind down.

The Fanciful Norwegian wrote: Wed Feb 12, 2020 10:19 pm

zedz wrote: Wed Feb 12, 2020 6:57 pm This thread bump made me realize that Hong didn't release a film in 2019 (let alone three). Has he been in prison or traction?

This is gossipy speculation, but I imagine a lot of Hong's time and energy last year was taken up by the last stages of his long-running divorce suit, which finally failed due to an outdated law holding that the party determined at fault for the breakdown of a marriage can't unilaterally end it. That wrapped up in June and he was apparently filming The Woman Who Ran in early November, so I guess he took some time to wind down.

I had no idea this was going on - I don't know if there are tabloids in Korea, but if there are I imagine they've been feeding on this story like rampant parasites.

They are, but Hong is fairly unknown so isn't the focus on them for this story. Kim Min Hee is though and that's keeping this much more alive then it would be otherwise. Imagine, by comparison's sake, if Brie Larson had a fling with Hal Hartley to give a sense of things.

Ha, well done Knives ... I'm actually kind of interested in seeing a Larson/Hartley collaboration.

Regarding Hong, what's a good place to start at?

The beginning is as good as any. Hong's a director that gets better the more you see him so just watching a bunch of films is best.

The only problem with Hong's (much darker than later films) first film The Day the Pig Fell into a Well is that the subtitles are sometimes almost gibberish. As far as I know, this has yet to get released with adequate subtitling. His second, Virgin Stripped Bare by her Bachelors, is still one of his best -- though the blu-ray seems to have worse black levels than the original Korean DVD. It might take a little adjustment to get used to his very idiosyncratic sense of humor. I haven't really disliked any of his films to date -- and I have loved more than a few (Woman on the Beach might be my overall favorite).

Michael Kerpan wrote: Thu Feb 13, 2020 3:05 pm The only problem with Hong's (much darker than later films) first film The Day the Pig Fell into a Well is that the subtitles are sometimes almost gibberish. As far as I know, this has yet to get released with adequate subtitling.

I could have sworn this was available on the Korean Film Archive's Youtube channel, but if it was it's gone now.

Michael Kerpan wrote: Thu Feb 13, 2020 3:05 pm The only problem with Hong's (much darker than later films) first film The Day the Pig Fell into a Well is that the subtitles are sometimes almost gibberish. As far as I know, this has yet to get released with adequate subtitling. His second, Virgin Stripped Bare by her Bachelors, is still one of his best -- though the blu-ray seems to have worse black levels than the original Korean DVD. It might take a little adjustment to get used to his very idiosyncratic sense of humor. I haven't really disliked any of his films to date -- and I have loved more than a few (Woman on the Beach might be my overall favorite).

Virgin is his third film, and his second, the wonderful The Power of Kangwon Province, is probably my favourite.

Both of those are great places to start. Virgin Stripped Bare by her Bachelors will probably give you the best preview of what was to come later. But as knives said, with Hong it's just a matter of accumulating the films. His career is less a story of artistic change / progress than one of a filmmaker who was a master from the outset filling in different sections of a vast artistic fresco, and a lot of the joy of watching his films is seeing how he gives his signature themes and structural experiments different inflections from film to film. Everybody has their favourites, or ones that hit them more directly at different times, but he's never made a bad film and never even come close.

Michael Kerpan wrote: Thu Feb 13, 2020 3:05 pm The only problem with Hong's (much darker than later films) first film The Day the Pig Fell into a Well is that the subtitles are sometimes almost gibberish. As far as I know, this has yet to get released with adequate subtitling.

I can't remember: does the recent-ish Korean BluRay have the same subtitles as the old DVD? Or just fresh gibberish?

zedz -- miscounted.

My recollection is that even the most recent Korean release of Pig also supposedly had the awful subtitles -- which was why I passed on buying the blu-ray.

The Power of Kangwon Province is my favorite Hong film.

Michael Kerpan wrote: Thu Feb 13, 2020 11:01 pmMy recollection is that even the most recent Korean release of Pig also supposedly had the awful subtitles -- which was why I passed on buying the blu-ray.

Random scene, chosen because it was exactly 10 minutes into the film:

He: What a view!

So far so good.

She: Why did you pay that? I wanna pay it. Beside, you don't have money.
He: Well ... Sometime, I have.
He: Though it's just cost 10000 more than Inn, it's so clean. Isn't it?
He: How did you know here? Have you been here before?

etc. all sic.

Looks great though.

yoshimori -- sounds like the vintage subs. I'll keep hoping for a fixed version...

Cinema Guild is releasing Grass on blu-ray (which was only a matter of time): http://store.cinemaguild.com/homevideo/ ... /5291.html

How rude! wrote: Tue Sep 19, 2017 4:53 am

With numbers like that he's able to consistently turn a profit or at least break even, probably thanks to international sales

Don't forget, he saves a lot of time and money by basically making the same movie over and over again.

'A filmmaker/ writer with writers' block bumps into an old girlfriend, old friend......talks, eats.....

All of his films are a variation of the above. I'm sure if you did a comparison of the dialogue in his films, there would be very similar phrases, lines, hell, complete monologues. watch his first few films and you have the filmmaker down pat. Of course his films are cheap to make. location scouting is done from his previous film! Still, some people love the comfort of knowing they won't be surprised.

I posted this in 2017, to an unanimous negative response. I stand by the post. Here is the start of a (generally positive) review for his latest film, 'The Woman who Ran' ;

“If he only repeats himself, how can he be sincere?” wonders a woman about her famous novelist husband whose TV appearances are all starting to sound alike. For anyone familiar with the work of Korean writer-director Hong Sang-soo, there’s a fascinating tongue-in-cheek quality to this remark, uttered in his latest work, the Berlin competition title The Woman Who Ran (Domangchin yeoja); repetitions with infinitesimal variations are basically Hong’s entire modus operandi.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/revie ... w-1280952

Couldn't agree more. Discuss!

I find the differences between his films far more significant than any similarities (which are generally mostly superficial). Not yet seen Grass -- but his other recent films have definitely been quite distinct (in my mind) from each other in tone and structure.

Michael Kerpan wrote: Wed Feb 26, 2020 1:50 pm I find the differences between his films far more significant than any similarities (which are generally mostly superficial). Not yet seen Grass -- but his other recent films have definitely been quite distinct (in my mind) from each other in tone and structure.

And I'd argue that Grass is secretly his most distinct and complex film yet.