The Power of Kangwon Province

The film is cut in two. In the first half a young woman travels to Kangwon province with friends and meets a policeman there. In the second, a married university lecturer makes the same trip in the same days; the two used to be together, they pass through nearly the same places, and they never meet. Hong Sang-soo never underlines the overlap, leaving the audience to match the details themselves. That is where the chill comes from: the connection between these two is already broken and only the geography is still shared. It is his second feature and can be read as the start of the structural experiments that run through everything after. The frames are static, the playing is flat, the events are ordinary. Who it is for: viewers who like Korean art cinema and parallel construction. Who it is not for: anyone waiting for an emotional peak, since the film never raises its voice.