Hong Sangsoo debuted a pair of films at the Cannes Film Festival over the past few days: Claire’s Camera in Special Screenings and the competition title The Day After. Both feature KIM Min-hee, who also starred in Hong’s other 2017 production On the Beach at Night Alone, and while reactions have been varied, critics have been mostly positive in their appraisals of the films, which some have described as small works. 

In competition, the black and white adultery drama The Day After was described by Variety as a “minor, monochrome comedy of confusion that sticks agreeably to its comfort zone.” The Hollywood Reporter called it a “quintessential Hong joint” as well as “another one of Hong's studies of male cowardice, indecisiveness and fragility.” Screen Daily was less kind in its review, stating that “all but the most dedicated fans of the director’s work might find this story a little too diffuse and meandering, its rewards too deeply buried beneath the evasive wordiness.” In their 3-star review, The Guardian summed up that “The Day After is an elegant exercise” that “feels like a chapter from something bigger.”

At only 69 minutes, Claire’s Camera, which stars Isabelle Huppert alongside KIM, is one of the shortest films in Hong’s career and critics all pointed out the film’s slight nature. THR called it a “short and sweet divertissement with a few profound punchlines,” while Variety, referring to the fact that the film was shot during last year’s Cannes Film Festival, chiming in that it is a “lovably slender, semi-sweet character study… that deftly captures the festival’s warmly disorienting effect on its stragglers.” Screen Daily was once more less enamored by the film, writing that it is “charming in places, and bears the hallmarks of his idiosyncratic style,” but “ultimately feels dashed and somewhat shallow.”