By the Stream

Jeonim, a lecturer at a women's university, calls in her uncle to salvage a student skit after a scandal breaks around it; he was a well-known actor once and has been absent for a long time. As the piece is put together, old matters resurface, and a closeness between the uncle and another teacher complicates things. Hong Sang-soo builds a more conventionally plotted film than usual here, though the method is unchanged: long tables, drinking, camera zooms, and things never said outright. Kim Min-hee's Jeonim goes down to the stream each day trying to draw the pattern of the water, which is where the title comes from. It premiered at Locarno in 2024. Who it is for: viewers who follow Hong's later work and like narrative carried by conversation. Who it is not for: anyone wanting speed, since nothing here is in a hurry.