There is no easy entry point to the work of Hong Sang-soo. Even though his style remains consistent, his Eric Rohmer-inspired narratives frequently built around off-the-cuff drunken conversations and meandering walks around Seoul, there’s a density to the storytelling not always immediately apparent. His earlier work could often be in conversation with itself, with metatextual narratives in one film appearing to recount events from another (as was the case with 2005’s Tale Of Cinema and 2002’s On the Occasion of Remembering The Turning Gate), and was generally more unsparing in depicting its characters’ boozed-up transgressions. Now, averaging between two and three films per year, he is less consciously narrative-driven, to the point many of his efforts could appear slight to the naked eye, such as his other 2024 premiere A Traveller’s Needs. That was a thoughtful, playful comedy about language barriers and the way these can be exploited, but with its dry humourous tone and extended conversational sequences over endless glasses of wine, it could be viewed as nothing more than business as usual.

Hong’s character studies have refrained from being as abrasive as his earlier work for quite some time, and By The Stream – at the time of writing, his most recent film to have premiered – is the clearest sign of this evolution as a storyteller. Many critics tend to read elements of autobiography into Hong’s films due to his frequent use of directors as protagonists, and how rich you’ll find By The Stream depends on how much you’re willing to interpret it under this light. After a scandal that saw a director (Ha Seong-guk) fired from making a short play for an upcoming student theatre festival, art professor Jeonim (Hong’s partner and frequent collaborator Kim Min-hee) invites her estranged uncle, former actor Sieon (Kwon Hae-hyo) to direct in his place. It’s the sort of loose premise any lesser filmmaker would mine for a lazy exploration of cancel culture, twisting backwards to find why Sieon’s predecessor lost his job. Hong couldn’t be less interested, and when the revelation is outed relatively early into proceedings, it isn’t scrutinised over either – Seong-guk’s character only ever appears in comic interludes from the drama, the characters as eager to get him out of frame as the director himself.

However, the parallels between this character and Sieon aren’t as easy to shake off, especially as the film repeatedly alludes to the older character’s own career having been halted due to a scandal of its own, which led to a career change in managing a remote bookshop far away from the capital city. Anybody who perceives Hong’s protagonists to be self-insert characters will have plenty to chew on when viewing Sieon’s collaborative style with his students when creating the play – a conversational process mirroring Hong’s own freeform methods of working – and the way that eventual dialogue scene is staged and framed within the film itself. It’s a well-honed style that is unmistakably that of the creator, told with a naturalistic patience despite its brevity; we don’t see examples of the fired director’s work, but through his characterisation and testaments to his scoundrel behaviour, he seems far more akin to the more overtly troublesome (and troubled) protagonists Hong favoured during the earlier stage of his career. It could be a self-critique, or exploration of the evolution of his artistic process as he’s matured, but there’s an added thorniness to the inter-personal drama which stops By The Stream from appearing like a director’s straightforward self assessment.

This can be found via Sieon’s relationship with his niece Jeonim, the restraints on which are largely inferred until later in the drama, largely shown evolve through the way she approaches his blossoming relationship with her boss Jeong (Cho Yun-hee), an outspoken fan of his who quickly invites him out for a drink. On an almost scene by scene basis, the way in which Jeonim approaches her uncle contrasts from an embrace to a colder shoulder, with Min-hee – who deservedly won the Best Performance award at last year’s Locarno Film Festival – making her inconsistent emotional temperament palatable even as it’s treated as a quiet background mystery. Witnessing what appears to be a director surrogate through the eyes of a third party both complicates and enriches the film as a work of autobiography, and it does so with a lightness of touch. Those not yet on the director’s wavelength may still find much to admire in the surface level gentleness of this drama, but appearances are deceptive, and his laid back approach to spending time with his characters hides his most ambitiously self-reflective tale in plain sight.

Rating:

Written by Alistair Ryder

By the Stream is released in UK cinemas on 31st January, 2025.

Featured image courtesy of Jeonwonsa Film

_{View of the Arts is an online publication dedicated to films, music, and arts, with a strong focus on the Asian entertainment industry. With rich content already available to our readers, we aim to expand our reach and grow alongside our audience by delving deeper into emerging platforms such as K-pop and Asian music more broadly. At the same time, we remain committed to exploring the vibrant and ever-evolving global landscape of film, music, and the arts, celebrating the immense talent and creativity that define these industries worldwide.}