With 25 years of film experience and 28 feature films under his belt, Hong Sang-soo is one of South Korea’s greatest living directors. South Korea releases incredible movies every year, and recent award winners like Parasite and the Netflix series squid game have helped make the country an international cinema powerhouse. But not every film from South Korea becomes globally popular, and there are directors pursuing a different kind of success: one that isn’t tied to box office numbers or big accolades. Enter Hong Sang-soo.
Despite his fame among critics, Sang-soo has quietly produced great works of cinematic art without breaking into the mainstream – both in his own country and in the West. While he has steadily built up fame in arthouse and independent circles, it seems unlikely that his understated, undramatic, and deeply personal films will propel him to the stardom of his peers. With this in mind, it’s worth spotlighting Sang-soo’s brilliant filmography, as well as the directorial quirks that make him such a special performer.
A long and fruitful career
Hong Sang-soo started out as a filmmaker and studied at the theater department of Chung-Ang University in South Korea. He then moved to the United States and received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Califonia College of Arts and Crafts and the School of the Art Institute Chicago, respectively. Although he has worked as a director for 25 years, he only debuted at the age of 36 with his first feature film. The day a pig fell into the well, premiered in 1996 and earned him a number of awards. From that point on, Sang-soo has never had more than two years without directing and releasing a movie – and in particularly fruitful years he releases two or three.
Sang-soo’s impressive production continued even as the COVID-19 pandemic nearly brought global film production to a standstill. At least he used the COVID-induced circumstances to master the stripped-down production style typical of so many of his works: small casts and crews, long takes, static shots, and scripts that are always in progress. By perfecting his low-budget filmmaking process, Sang-soo has been able to maintain and increase his output even in times of crisis. His unwavering, resourceful spirit ensures that fans of the director never have to wait long for his next release.
Masterpieces of South Korean Cinema
Of Hong Sang-soo’s 28 films, several can be considered classics of South Korean cinema. As Bong Joon-ho (from Parasite fame) and Park Chan-Wook (director of old boy), Sang-soo helped usher in a new era of Korean filmmaking that has exploded in popularity in recent years. Sang-soo’s work hasn’t received much fanfare, but it has earned him critical acclaim, with several of his films appearing on best-of lists and winning awards at film festivals. Today, some of his films can rightfully be called South Korean cinematic masterpieces. Two of his greatest recent achievements, Right now, wrong then and Alone at night on the beach, showing that he has only gotten better with age. It’s exciting to think about what he will accomplish next, and to contemplate the prospect of his best work yet to come.
The low cost of his film productions gives him the freedom to experiment without fear of losing money or losing investors. Because of his idiosyncratic style, he was sometimes hailed as a “minimal realist” (per The Hollywood Reporter), although he prefers not to label himself as one thing. While not every viewer will appreciate the understated, visually static, and sometimes improvisational nature of Sang-soo’s films, they remain valuable for their uniqueness—or, in other words, for the escape they provide from the big budget, consumer-facing cinema.
No signs of slowing down
Hong Sang-soo is now 61 years old, but age hasn’t slowed down his production in the least. Per The New York Times, Hong Sang-soo has recently distinguished itself with successful festival performances, with no fewer than three films premiering in 2017 at Cannes and the Berlin International Film Festival. In 2022, the veteran filmmaker released two feature films, The novelist’s movie and Walk upwith the former receiving critical acclaim despite its relative lack of originality. The novelist’s movie marks another successful production from the COVID era, demonstrating that Sang-soo is able to thrive despite limitations. Walk up premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier in September, and received modest praise as well.
Hong Sang-soo has not revealed what projects he is currently working on, if any. However, if his tireless work ethic is any indication, we’ll likely be hearing from him very soon. Sang-soo set a pace for himself that seems impossible to follow, but somehow he persevered. Perhaps it comes down to his ability to write and direct only the movies he wants to make—a privilege not shared by most directors—that keeps him from getting burned out. Whatever it is, we viewers are reaping the rewards of this South Korean master’s refusal to slow down. There is no better time than now to immerse yourself in his work.