It’s such a delight to see Kim Min-hee again in a leading role. Though everyone knows that Kim is filmmaker Hong Sangsoo’s partner in both life and commerce, she’s also one of Korea’s best actors, and since becoming Hong’s most important behind-the-scenes facilitator she hasn’t done much in front of the camera. In By the Stream she plays an art teacher, Jeonim, at a women’s college who has been pushed into a hard place by her superiors. The school is having a drama festival and another instructor (Ha Seong-guk), a man, was directing a sketch when it is discovered that he was perhaps romantically involved with several of the students under his direction. Jeonim has been assigned to take his place and since she is mainly a visual artist she doesn’t think she has what it takes to direct actors, so she calls up her uncle, Chu Sieon (Kwon Hae-hyo), who was once a noted actor and director to assist. He seems only too happy to help.

That’s because some years before he himself was involved in a scandal that effectively ended his career, though in his case the scandal was political in nature. He now runs a bookstore in another town but apparently has a lot of time, and Jeonim gives him free rein with the students who are creating and performing the sketch. Though Hong shows us the rehearsals and some of the brainstorming that goes into the production, as usual he’s more interested in observing how these characters interact in more casual settings, whether drinking in a restaurant, hanging out in the teachers’ rooms, or just chatting by the titular stream, which seems to be Jeonim’s favorite place to think. In these conversations we pick up on Jeonim’s misgivings about asking her uncle to get involved in her work, mainly because he seems to have attracted the attention of her professional mentor, Jeong (Cho Yun-hee), who, despite the fact that Sieon’s reputation as a trouble-maker has preceded him, finds him charming in what Jeonim thinks is an unwholesome way. Meanwhile, the sketch may be headed toward the same kind of backlash that made Sieon persona non grata in the world of professsional drama. 

This is a lot of plot for a Hong Sangsoo movie, but as with the participation of Kim Min-hee the potboiler nature of the writing is quite refreshing, even if Hong isn’t the most reliable storyteller. He never explains the details of Sieon’s fall from grace and many of the plot developments happen either off-screen or in overheard conversations. These tactics nevertheless make By the Stream one of Hong’s most emotionally tense movies, even as his characters constantly set themselves up, almost hilariously, for behavioral pratfalls. When the disgraced teacher shows up to check on how the sketch is going, Sieon patronizes him and unwisely tries to bring him back into the production, if only tangentially. He’s not being perverse. If anything, he’s magnanimous, but it only goes to show, as with any male character in a Hong movie, that he’ll never learn. 

In Korean. Now playing in Tokyo at Euro Space Shibuya (03-3461-0211).

By the Stream home page in Japanese

photo (c) 2024 Jeonwonsa Film Co.