Awards and festivals

Film description

In the middle of the winter, an older poet arrives at a secluded hotel by the river Han. He feels he is coming to his end, so he asks his two adult sons he lost touch with, to come and meet him. Meanwhile, a young woman rents a room in a hotel to run away from an unrequited love and cure her bruised heart. She asks her friend to come for moral support. The poet and his sons keep passing themselves by, unable to meet in one place, even though all three of them want to get an explanation and sum up their relationships. When the poet sees the two friends walking in the snow, he thinks he found the answer to his troubling feelings.

Hang Sang-soo's films have a distinct auteur touch. He bases his scripts on long talks and awkward communication situations, which turn into insightful comments on the Korean society, and especially its families and romantic relationships. The characteristic visual style, inspired by the cinema of the French master, Eric Rohmer, engages the audiences and invites them them for long walks with the protagonists and into their conversations.

Maja Korbecka