I saw this movie after knowing the love between Kim Min-hee and Hong Sang-soo first. With curiosity, exploration, and love for actor Kim Min-hee, I wanted to know why they made such a choice without hesitation.
You can only watch it on your own computer, which is very different from the big screen in the cinema. I haven't seen many movies before, and even the literary films have almost no contact, not to mention Hong Sangxiu's films can be regarded as the kind of unintelligible among the literary films.
I can imagine how boring and sleepy this movie was for me. I watched it with the support of Jin Minxi. At the end of the movie, I was still confused: "Is it gone?"
As for the taste of the movie and the feeling after watching it, it does not exist. I turned off the computer and was reluctant to open the next movie of Hong Sang-soo and Kim Min-hee.
The first time I was moved by this film was when I accidentally watched the clip of Jin Minxi smoking and humming in front of a cafe, and suddenly realized the artistic conception created by the film.
The iconic long shot, the camera position is gently approached, and at that moment, Yingxi is suddenly immersed in the rich and complex but calm emotions: everything that happened before and after, her questioning and thinking about the world, her inner loneliness and suffering.
If you think about it carefully, you will find that there are many, many similar moments in your life. For a long time, one major event determined the main tone of the mood, and countless small events came one after another: the movie that pokes the central issue, the empty room after taking a nap, the subtle estrangement when getting along with people.
After that, many scenes and many clips in the movie became clear in my mind little by little, and I brushed it a second time. The following understanding of the film is just a discussion based on my own superficial experience.
In fact, the whole movie has a very small theme. It is only about a woman's questioning of the world at the moment of loneliness and suffering. She wants to find an answer and find a correct path.
But the subject is also very deep. Where in the world is the correct answer? The world has given us many rules, but how many people have thoroughly thought about the meaning and correctness of these standards?
So what is the answer that Young-hee is looking for? This is not the conflict between her love and the secular rules at all, but the conflict between her spiritual world and the secular rules. But love has become the fuse for the full outbreak of conflict.
In fact, this world does not need to find the so-called correct answer. Without this answer, it is probably very good to live up to the standards set by the world (I can only say roughly, because I have never experienced it).
But there is always a small group of people in the world who are naturally sensitive and thoughtful, and they have to face these "useless" problems, but sooner or later. Young-hee was inevitably pushed to such a problem, the deviation between the inner world and the outer world is the real source of everything.
So she knelt in front of the bridge and asked for answers, drew pictures on the beach and asked her friends, and suddenly questioned others at the wine table.
Most people feel that this is an autobiography-like private film, Hong Sang-soo and Kim Min-hee's answer to the world. The reporter also specifically asked Hong Sang-soo this question.
Hong Sang-soo denied it with great certainty.
This is actually a very good proof of a sentence: some people who can understand will always understand if you don’t explain them, and those who can’t understand will not understand even if you explain them.
The first time I watched it, I also looked at it with an exploratory mind, because I knew too much in advance, and I completely regarded the heroine as Kim Min Hee. But in fact she is not Kim Min Hee, she is Young Hee.
Don't treat the movie as a continuation of the gossip, but treat the movie as pure movie.
If you have also experienced such loneliness and suffering, if you have also experienced the chaos and collapse of your inner world (for some people in the world, this is the only way to grow), you will naturally understand the situation of Young Hee.
I don't know if it was lucky or unfortunate, but not long after watching this movie, I fell into Young Hee's situation again, and I began to feel that this movie has a long aftertaste. During that time, I wanted to watch this movie like crazy, and I wanted to go to the beach alone.
So, did Young Hee get the answer in the end? Judging only by the time the movie was due, no. She was still struggling.
However, she will always seek answers and achieve inner integrity. That's the beauty of this movie, it really has a much longer life than the movie.
In more than an hour, it has completely outlined Yingxi's psychological state and her own spiritual realm during this period. With this understanding, we can at least know that people like her will always find the answer.
In addition to the theme of the film, there are many moving places in the film. For example, Yingxi's loneliness and struggle is very beautiful, because of the integrity and freedom she shows, I see someone describe it as "shattering and broken but indifferent beauty".
Kim Min-hee captured all of Young-hee's fragility and beauty with her sensitive nerves, and showed it with her delicate and smooth acting skills. When Kim Min-hee becomes Young-hee, she needs to dissolve at least three levels of her.
First, what kind of person Yingxi is, her emotions must be in this framework. Second, what kind of state Yingxi has been in during this time, this will be the main tone of the movie. Third, the emotions at this moment, neither the main tone nor the characters, can we build a full three-dimensional character.
The comfort and smoothness of the movie come largely from Kim Min-hee's natural acting skills.
The entire film was shot almost entirely from the heart of Young Hee, closest to the heart of the protagonist, as if the whole world was just a reflection of her spiritual world. There is also a man in black who can be used as a psychological map of Young Hee.
There must be many works of various forms throughout the ages that have focused on similar themes, but because of the differences in different creative types, Hong Sang-soo's strong personal style, and the film's rare angle of cut, this film is very unique.
For Hong Sang-soo, this can be regarded as a very unique film for him, abandoning the previous shooting habit of focusing on men's perspectives, and completely cutting in from the perspective of women. All the shots focus on Kim Min-hee alone. For a male creator, this is also a rare thing.
To say that this is a love letter to Kim Min-hee is indeed an understatement. At least he's trying to understand the world through the eyes of the one he loves.
Hong Sang-soo did say that Kim Min-hee changed the way he saw the world, and after Kim Min-hee he started to try to trust the world. The change of the creator's concept is bound to affect his creation.
View more about On the Beach at Night Alone reviews
