The 67th Berlin International Film Festival came to an end. Compared with this year's poor quality main competition unit, the awards ceremony was full of climaxes. Compared to Kaorismaki and the Golden Bear winner "Flesh and Spirit" who were too drunk to go on stage to accept the award, the Korean actress Kim Min-hee's award was the biggest highlight of the night. The actress, who was previously criticized by the media and the public in South Korea for having an extramarital affair with director Hong Sang Soo, played an actress who avoided a foreign country because of an extramarital affair in Hong Sang Soo's new film "On the Beach at Night Alone." It was in this very sincere performance in this film that is highly related to his personal life that Kim Min-hee was awarded the Berlin Best Actress award and made a bold statement to Hong Sang-soo directly at the awards ceremony. Deep Focus DeepFocus from Berlin, Germany
Text | Jumacha (from Berlin)
Hong Shangxiu didn't have too many tricks this time, and the always full of bad water seems to have nowhere to fall, the structure is almost flat and straightforward, divided into two scenes by time and place, and even the usual joking and sarcastic face seems to be put away, my favorite push and pull scene Also reduced a lot. In contrast, although he borrowed from the characters in the play that "how boring a personal story is, the key is how to shoot", but this time he doesn't seem to care about the form of "how to shoot".
The scene is simplified to the utmost, random roadside stalls, apartment balconies, monotonous rooms, bus platforms, a simple table in a cafe, and a hotel room, nothing special. And the most important "seaside" seems to be the main topic, because of the winter, it is also a feeling of decay and depression, there is no sunrise on the sea or the sunshine of the magic moment. When I returned to Korea from Germany, I went to the so-called "most beautiful cities", but there was nothing to see, and I heard that the parks that I wanted to go to were not open.
This time, it was a lonely woman trying to find her way out of the pain, revealing a naked heart that wanted to see the sea in winter, no longer Hong Sang-soo's usual objective and acrid cold-eyed, men and women wandering around change. From the beginning to the end, we seem to be in the inner world of this woman Yanxi, so the whole film is filled with the kind of sadness that is scattered everywhere, without too much expectation, and sings a song in front of the cafe. A little song, draw a face on the pale beach and say seriously "I miss him, I love him", "The wind is blowing, can you see my heart".
It seems that Hong Sangxiu no longer revolves around the relationship between men and women, no longer needs men to set off women, and does not need women to show us the "hypocrisy and cowardice" of men. The contact between the woman and the man is passive and hesitant, trying to avoid the old person at the bus stop, and reluctantly extending her hand when shaking hands to say goodbye, but immediately she goes to touch a flower on the side of the road, smelling it in the wind, it seems to be to kiss it. Here, men seem to be illusory bubbles, having superficial and distant conversations with women, trying to recall the past. The direct and harmonious expressions of affection between the women are in stark contrast. They don't seem to have their own personality, they only appear in wanton discussions among women. They are old and young, lose their fighting spirit, are controlled by their wives, are gentle or rough, are fools, or are loved, and everything is a woman. subjective inner feelings. Or just have a transactional settlement with her, contact a friend, and borrow money to repay. In the first part, the heroine's friend is going to take her to meet a man who seems to be in a good relationship, but when she actually goes to someone else's house, she doesn't speak to him.
The most critical "male protagonist" only appears in a dream of the heroine, crying about the regret of love, and reading to him the most beautiful passage in the book, which moved her deeply. In fact, it is not the feedback from the woman herself. This time, in Hong Sang Soo's film, a woman is really just a woman, taking off the truth and lies in the relationship network, not anyone's daughter, let alone a man's future.
The movie begins with her back, the opening music gradually falls, she turns around, as if to announce, a rather dramatic opening, which makes the subsequent plot seem to be somewhat unrealistic, and the music is also somewhat restless . And in the black screen time between the first and second acts, the actor's name appeared again, as if the two parts were two different movies, or when the second act opened, Yanxi faced the camera, and there was no one in the room. The end of watching the movie in the movie theater, as if the first part of the foreign experience was just the movie she watched, or she took out her past experience and savored it like a movie. The process of self-examination and relief was too long, so everything Also added a surreal feel. The man in black who came to ask the time inexplicably, began to be rejected by her. At the end of the first act, when she slowly walked into the sea, he carried her away, but in the second act, he wiped her clean. The glass in the hotel looking at the sea is probably the most detached scene in the soothing and dull tone of the whole film. When Yanxi appeared in the hotel, the man was on the balcony, while her two friends were talking in black. The man was nowhere to be found. When she came out, we were taken to the window by the camera, and we took a good look at the sea for the first time through the cleaned glass.
Yanxi said that she is good at observation, but love is invisible, you can only find it if you see it. Hong Shangxiu used this film to show how she laboriously wiped away the dust in front of her eyes in a meticulous, gentle and poetic way. Inner emotions and sustenance, while trying to find one's own way, go strong and put aside useless relationships. The scene is still waiting and trying to face her heart, but she is powerless. In the end, she seems unable to leave the beach, but she is supported by the inexplicable strength in her heart. The scene is the wakefulness and melancholy of returning home. It is that I find support in reading, wake up from a dream, say I am fine, thank you, and leave by the sea.
However, of course, Hong Sangxiu still has to talk about love around the wine table. In this part, for the first time everyone sits around, and at the end, the woman kisses the woman, jokingly promises to be a good friend for life, the woman kisses the man, and the one who is alone People drinking wine, such a play scene is presented so movingly in a pull-back camera, Hong Sangxiu's wine table probably hasn't been so generalized and accurate for a long time.
A movie is a person, the director is another person, they can be his parents, brothers and sisters, lovers and comrades, they can be another self in the world, but no matter how inextricably linked, no matter how close they are, Still two isolated islands in a piece of water. To understand a person, you can first understand his relatives and neighbors, but in the end, the most direct connection between you and him is to see, listen, and touch this person. You may often hear people commenting on how similar you are to your parents and how close you are to your friends, and you still know how, after all, you are alone and how you have developed your edge. The same is true of movies. The director's life provides a certain direction, but it is always external. When the movie is completed like a baby, its relationship with the audience in the future can only be defined by itself.
Hong Shangxiu drew an asymptote that infinitely approached him, shot an arrow at him and melted himself away before cutting the skin, only taking out a loose main line like "a married director and an actress fell in love", filling in What went in was entirely a woman's mind, a meticulous texture that could not be read from the headlines of gossip in the newspapers, not justifying, not talking, not showing off.
Jin Minxi, who has won the Berlin actress, is definitely not her true character. It is so simple to play. What brings to the loose and dull life is the tingling and sobriety wrapped in softness, so her Yanxi is straightforward and even destructive, but the deepest She is silent and firm. When she releases her emotions, her control is clear and accurate, but it is surging like flowing water. It is no wonder that she was praised by the jury as "a brand new performance paradigm". These two people give each other in this, but they exist very independently, no matter what, whether it is a personal story or a virtual life, the movie is separated from them on the big screen, no matter how it is connected. At the same time, these thoughts and poetry, the thirst for love provokes the viewer, just like Whitman's poem of the same name, "On the beach alone at night... When I look at the bright stars, I think of the universe and the future. A mark on the musical score. A great similarity interlocks everything..."
The strange thing is that the title of the film is "On the Beach at Night Alone". Yanxi went to the seaside several times in broad daylight, as if being alone on the seaside at night is the most important thing, not to be seen by others. The film ends what the woman does along the coast away from the center of the shot.
View more about On the Beach at Night Alone reviews
