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NEWS & REPORTS
Berlin Critics Pour Praise on Hong Sangsoo’s ON THE BEACH AT NIGHT ALONE
Feb 20, 2017
- Writer by Pierce Conran
- View3122
KIM Min-hee Singled Out for Strong Lead Performance
Hong Sangsoo’s 19th film has drawn some of the best and most consistent reviews after premiering in competition at the 67th edition of the Berlin International Film Festival. On the Beach at Night Alone, which stars KIM Min-hee in the lead role, is the director’s third work at Berlinale after Night And Day (2008) and Nobody’s Daughter Haewon (2013).
Described by Variety as “an elegantly bisected character study of a young actress gradually coming to terms with the end of an affair,” Hong’s latest is another character-driven work which, per Indiewire, “plays like a cogent stanza in the ever-flowing lyricism of Hong’s career” and features, as The Hollywood Reporter puts it, a plot that is “scarce to non-existent”.
Some critics who previously had difficulty with Hong’s work were finally won over by his latest, such as The Playlist, calling it “the most perplexing film ever to make total sense in a way that has nothing to do with logic,” and going on to say that “I’ve finally found my Hong Holy Grail.”
Variety called KIM Min-hee, who partnered with Hong previously on Right Now, Wrong Then (2015), as the film’s “aching heart,” who delivers an “intuitive performance that very much dictates the varying pace and tenor of largely conversational scenes that might, in the wrong hands, seem samey.” Screen International commends KIM for “stellar performance following recent roles in PARK Chan-wook’s The Handmaiden and Hong’s last film.”
On the Beach at Night Alone earned KIM the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the close of this year’s Berlinale.
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