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In Our Day.In the cinema, as elsewhere, the notion of “late style” has become a critical commonplace—shorthand for dealing with an artist’s “mature” work, particularly when said artists are dismissed or misunderstood after a period of acclaim. The problem with shorthand, of course, is that not everyone can read it, the result being that appeals to “late style” can come across as abdications of critical responsibility, promissory notes that have yet to be fulfilled. Such debts are in many cases eventually paid, obscure references to “late style” giving way to fuller, more perspicuous accounts of an artist’s achievement. Few would now dispute the considered analyses of how Howard Hawks, pivoting on the success of Rio Bravo (1959), made a deliberate move into the late-career languor of Hatari! (1962), Man’s Favorite Sport? (1964), and Red Line 7000 (1965). In the case of Hong Sang-soo, however, this critical due has yet to...

Hong Sang-soo's films have a certain calm quality to them that many have tried to replicate over the years, with mixed results. So you would be forgiven for thinking that director Lim Oh-jeong, who has worked in Hong's directing department on a few of his films including “Tale of Cinema” and “Like You Know It All”, would try to replicate those qualities for her debut feature-length work “Hail to Hell”. However, this couldn't be further from the truth.

Hail to Hell is screening at London Korean Film Festival

The feature opens with a gang of students bullying Sun-woo. Shortly after, Sun-woo and Na-mi, another girl who is bullied by the same gang and the only person Sun-woo can remotely call a friend, go through a silly failed suicide attempt and decide that, instead of taking their lives, they should exact revenge on those that put them through hell.

The main thing a lot of Hong’s films have in common, are elaborate structures. They are different variables of the same story, and ultimately, same issues. The characters in his films give in to their libidinal drives; reconnect with the past and try to make peace with it; somebody disappears, or reappears, and puts things in motion. We watch a story within a story, a flashback, or a variation of the same events: with Hong, you never know exactly what game he’s playing with you. Dennis Lim’s book “Tale of Cinema” (eponymized after Hong’s film) tries to emulate the directors’ playfulness. There are twelve chapters, six numerated in Roman numbers, and six in Western digits. We read chapter ii., to turn the page and, to our surprise, begin reading chapter 2. One would say: a typically Hongian construction. Each part has its theme, but they also revolve around,...

A pair of renowned auteurs who often work in secrecy have finished shooting their next projects. First up, South Korean director Hong Sangsoo has actually shot not one, but two new films following up The Novelist’s Film, which premiered at Berlinale earlier this year.

As revealed during his retrospective at Film at Lincoln Center, featuring the director in person and which just concluded last night with a secret screening of The Novelist’s Film, Hong has not only completed his 28th film but has also shot his 29th feature, which still is in post-production. While no additional details were given, don’t be surprised if we see Hong turn up with his next feature on the festival circuit before the end of the year.

Meanwhile, Iranian director Jafar Panahi has completed production on his new film No Bears. Marking the director’s follow-up to 3 Faces, Screen Daily reports the film...

NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.

Japan Society

Ghost in the Shell kicks off “Monthly Anime.”

Film at Lincoln Center

The thematically arranged Hong Sang-soo double features have their last weekend until May—highlights include Tale of Cinema on 35mm and a triple-feature on Sunday.

IFC Center

The new restoration of Inland Empire continues, while Mississippi Masala starts; Eraserhead, The Crow, Twilight, and Derek Jarman’s Sebastiane have late-night showings.

Roxy Cinema

A Nick Zedd program screens Friday; Death in Venice, Traveling Light, and prints of Unstoppable and Lady Terminator play on Saturday; Death in Venice and Unstoppable also play on Sunday, alongside a Yale Film Archive program.

Museum of Modern Art

As retrospectives of Larry Fessenden’s genre house Glass Eye Pix winds down, Buñuel’s Nazarin screens in a new restoration.

Metrograph

The Robert Siodmak retrospective winds down, while three Dracula movies play in...

Hong Sang-soo has directed over twenty films. His debut feature “The Day a Pig Fell into the Well” (1996) won the Tiger Award in Rotterdam while several of his next films including “Woman Is the Future of Man” (2004), “Tale of Cinema” (2005) and “The Day After” (2017) were selected at the Cannes film festival, while “Hahaha” won the Prix Un Certain Regard at 2010. At Locarno, “Our Sunhi” (2013) won the Pardo d’oro for Best Director while “Right Now, Wrong Then” (2015) earned Hong Sang-soo the Pardo d’oro – Concorso internazionale. His 2020 film “The Woman Who Ran” won him the Silver Bear for Best Director at the 70th Berlin International Film Festival. In our Best Asian Films of 2020 list, “The Woman Who Ran” was voted as the third best.

His distinct style of people drinking and discussing fervently, men appearing as lowlifes, subtle but timely humor, along with the sudden, occasionally double zoom-ins and the...