Oki’s Movie by Hong Sang-Soo
Things Hong Sang-Soo Has Said That Seem Relevant To This Article
Re: autobiography in his movies – “Whether it be an event within a dream or in the reality of a film, there is no difference in that the audience experiences this happening. If I present things as a dream, then the audience would soon accept it as a dream. But what they have actually experienced has the same weight and density as what I presented as ‘reality.'”
Re: how the audience should interact with plot – “If you feel something from my film, it doesn’t come from making a connection between the so-called ‘material’ of the film and the form of the film. It comes from the imagining process inside yourself as you watch the film. It comes from a much lower part of yourself. It doesn’t come from making all these abstract connections. The formal structure is purely an aesthetic means of putting together those scenes that I felt are necessary to include in the movie. It’s a way to help people feel that there’s a certain aesthetic consistency throughout the film. After that, how each responds is different—it’s up to them. So, structurally, my films are very closed and tight, but in terms of the response I expect from the audience, it’s very open. That’s what I intend.”
Re: how he prefers to experience movies – “Today I don’t even go to the cinema, only to see films by people I know. At festivals, for example, I don’t like the environment… waiting in line, etc. Usually I go to the cinema in the daytime when there aren’t many people, usually alone, or with two or three other people I like.”
Re: playfulness (responding to, “Why did you do it [The Day He Arrives] backwards?”) – “Because it’s fun.”
Re: where his ideas form – “I don’t consciously set up an environment [to stimulate creativity]. It’s more of an accident. In Night and Day, for example, I used Beethoven. I like that music a lot, but I had forgotten about it, it wasn’t a part of my life anymore. And then in the first floor of my building there was this cash machine, and when I went to withdraw money this machine always played Beethoven music. It’s usually things like that that inspire me. At the beginning of the process, I like to get my material from the, how can I say this… unfiltered space of living—you know what I mean?”
Re: structure (responding to, “When making a film, do you start with a scenario? Or do you begin with something smaller, such as a character, scene, or line of dialogue?”) – “No, these days only with a very short treatment or piles of some notes. Usually I begin with some everyday situation. Then I think up some formal structure which enables me to see the situation a certain way.”
Re: formation of tone (specifically location-based tone) – “Let’s try going there. And let’s see what relationships come about of the broken fragments that pass through me.”
Re: experience of art – “All human beings, including me, are complex. But we’re always forced to speak of ourselves in simplified ways. And yet there is a limit to expressing what someone is like through language. So that’s why people listen to music and look at paintings. They want to break away from that excessive simplification brought upon them through language and experience themselves in their original state or at least somewhere close to it.”
Re: aesthetic qualities a/effecting conveyed tone (specifically, why he switched The Day He Arrives from color to black and white after filming it) – “[…] concerned about the large amount of information delivered through color may dull the delicate emotions portrayed by the characters.”
Re: representing himself through his movies (specifically, using his own handwriting for credits and titles, and responding to, “From what I remember you wrote the titles for Hahaha and Oki’s Movie in your handwriting as well, but I think that’s when the tone of your movies started changing a bit. I also through that the relationship between the director and the characters in your movies is gradually become closer.”) – “Hmm… That’s true in a way. And in my own way I think that’s the way things should be. I think the dark feelings, or feelings of being in debt, that had accumulated in my heart since I was a teenager, are being released through my movies one by one and as they reveal themselves under the sunlight, I think I somewhat break away from the memories in my past. And that has helped me depict on what is closer to who I am right now.”
Re: why he likes movies – “I didn’t like looking at the truth through other people’s words. So I thought about how as close to the truth as possible I could materialize what I see through my own language. I would be happy even if it’s similar [to the truth] by the slightest amount. In such a way, laying certain pieces on the screen through a process which is entirely illogical, arranging those pieces by intuition, watching that on the wall not just by yourself with others, sharing the same thoughts as some of those people, and being able to laugh with them. That what I like. About films.”
Re: misc. –
Beck Una: Do you write poems?
Hong Sang-Soo: Yes, occasionally. It’s not really a big deal. For example, first line, an ashtray is transparent. Second line, the table is yellow. Or the ashtray is standing up but the table is lying down. Doesn’t even that make it seem strange?
Beck: Hm… It does seem to create some kind of meaning in between the lines.
HSS: Yes, I think that’s why I like poetry. It’s something that anybody can do without having to invest money in and without having to study. And you can also free yourself from the thought that you need to be logically and linguistically perfect which will further help you to reach that substantive point.
Beck: Then how do you live as a brave person?
HSS: There are things which are habits, that we cling to, that we think are wrong but can avoid, but rather than avoiding them, being able to own up to your own faults and survive through them, that’s what it means to live as a brave person.
This post is part of Tao Lin Day. To read more posts in this series, click here.