Right Sketch, Wrong Skit: Sangsoo Scans Patterns in Bittersweet Interludes
Perspectives of regret and the uncertain odyssey of retrospection emphasize the undertones of perennial auteur Hong Sangsoo’s latest, By the Stream (his second premiere of the year following A Traveler’s Needs). While its title is reminiscent of any number of Sangsoo narratives, which tend to be tied to various forms of landscape, like beaches, hills, rivers, or mountains, his latest is a more melancholic, reflective departure, and (at least for Sangsoo) contains more pointed cultural critiques in the subtext than per usual. While there’s plenty of eating, drinking (and the guilty pleasure of smoking cigarettes), an assortment of patterns emerge in the eddies of its straightforward story.… Read the rest
