Like You Know It All

Hong Sang-soo's 2009 Korean film follows Ku, a director invited to sit on a festival jury and then to teach at a school. The same thing happens in both parts: the man drinks, runs into people he knows and humiliates himself. Hong's cinema is built on repetition and this is one of its plainest examples: the two halves are variations on each other and the difference is in the details. The target is an art world taking itself seriously; the jury meetings and the students' questions are equally ridiculous. The camera is static and the zooms crude. The story is without incident and the humour dry. Who it's for: viewers who like Hong Sang-soo and minimal storytelling. Who it's not for: anyone wanting incident, or who will find a repeating structure wearing.