Leading indie sales agent Finecut has picked up international rights to “In Our Day” by idiosyncratic South Korean director Hong Sang-soo. The film is set as the closing title of the Directors’ Fortnight sidebar of the Cannes festival.
Hong, who works on low budgets, controls much of the production process and makes repeated use of a small pool of actors, is one of the most prolific feature directors in the world. This is already his second feature this year. His earlier, “In Water” played in the Encounters section at Berlin in February
His films are known for their minimalist style, a focus on female characters, serial chance encounters and oblique references to the media industry. On paper, “In Our Day” fits exactly in that groove.
Finecut pitches the synopsis as: “A woman in her early 40s, is temporarily living at the home of a friend, who is raising a cat. Another person, a man in his 70s living alone, had his cat die of old age. Today each of them had a visitor — a woman in her 20s for the woman, and a man in his 30s for the old man. Both visitors came with serious questions to ask. The woman answered them rather briefly while standing up, while the old man ended up giving longer answers in an extended conversation. Both of them had ramyun for lunch in front of their guests, and coincidentally enough, they both added hot pepper paste to their ramyun. It’s not a very common thing to add hot pepper paste to ramyun.…”
Its cast includes Ki Joobong (“Kill Boksoon,” “Daemuga,” “Hotel by the River”) and Hong regular Kim Minhee (“The Novelist’s Film,” “The Woman Who Ran,” “On The Beach At Night Alone”).
Although his works divide critics, Hong and his frenetic output appear to have been rehabilitated among selectors (and juries) at the major European festivals.
Hong’s 2020 “The Woman Who Ran” earned Berlin’s silver bear for best director. His 2021 film “Introduction” won another silver bear for best screenplay at that year’s delayed festival. His other film of 2021, “In Front of Your Face” played in competition in the July 2021 edition of the Cannes festival, but came away empty-handed. In 2022, Hong had “The Novelist’s Film” in Berlin and “Walk Up” in Toronto and San Sebastian.
