Night and Day(Bamgua Nat)

A crisp Rohmerian entry into Hong’s oeuvre that evokes the spirit of early ’60s French New Wave, this casually naturalistic drama explores alienation, ennui and frustration faced by a Korean painter amid the hedonistic allure of Paris. Accompanied by the exhilarating allegretto of Beethoven’s 7th Symphony, his course of self-exile – featuring a run-in with an old flame, a cautious affair with a young art student, and ultimately a return to his wife after a momentous lie – is filled with ambiguity and amusing irony. Through what appears to be a self-critical confession, we are left questioning whether his interactions are real, or simply projections of his own male fantasies.

Berlin International Film Festival: In Competition