Canadian Premiere
VIFF mainstay Hong Sangsoo is back with his 33rd feature, and it’s a gem: wry, subtle, and simmering with social tension. Dropping his girlfriend Junhee (Kang Soyi) off at her home, thirtysomething poet Donghwa (Ha Seongguk) meets her father, Oryeong (Kwon Haehyo), and gets roped into an extended family visit. As the hours pass and the booze flows, the line between honesty and rudeness blurs, and Donghwa edges closer and closer to embarrassment…
As always with Hong, structure is key: Nature unfolds in numbered chapters, and the filmmaker plots the dramatic escalation with a sure hand. Shot on deliberately blurry video, this is a spare, small-scale work, yet its pleasures are many: rich, naturalistic conversation that plays out in suspensefully sustained shots; delicate symmetry of form; fine performances; and light, relatable humour. Poetic in design, casual in appearance, and radiant with intelligence, this is a deceptively modest delight. It expands as it progresses and lingers beyond its runtime like a whispered revelation.
Cooperating Organizations
Ha Seongguk, Kwon Haehyo, Cho Yunhee, Kang Soyi, Park Miso
South Korea
2025
In Korean with English subtitles
At Granville Island Stage
At Fifth Avenue
Book Tickets
Credits & Director
Producer
Hong Sangsoo
Screenwriter
Hong Sangsoo
Cinematography
Hong Sangsoo
Editor
Hong Sangsoo
Original Music
Hong Sangsoo
Hong Sangsoo 홍상수
Hong Sangsoo was born in Seoul, Korea, on October 25, 1960. He studied in the theatre department at Chung-Ang University before moving to the United States, where he continued his studies at the California College of Arts and Crafts and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He made his first feature-length film in 1996 and has since made 33 features and a number of shorts.
Filmography: Tale of Cinema (2005); Oki’s Movie (2010); Claire’s Camera (2017); In Front of Your Face (2021); A Traveler’s Needs (2024)
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
The President's Cake
Nine year old Lamia and her friend Saeed venture into the city to scrounge ingredients for a cake to celebrate Sadaam Hussein's birthday — a quest fraught with real peril in precarious times. Winner, Camera d'Or, Cannes.
Sinners
2025's unexpected box office sleeper is that rare beast, a genre movie full of bold invention and surprise. We are in Mississippi in the early 1930s, and the opening of a new blues joint on the edge of town is the signal for all hell to break out.
Montreal, ma belle
In this Valentine to discovering love later in life, the ever-elegant Joan Chen plays Feng Xia, a 53-year-old Chinese immigrant and mother in Montreal whose world is turned upside down when she meets and falls in love with a young Quebecoise.
The Secret Agent
Having run afoul of an influential bureaucrat in Brazil’s military dictatorship circa 1977, Marcelo decamps to Recife to live under an assumed name — but he’ll soon come to understand precisely how rampant the country’s corruption has become.
Antonia's Line
This month's Pantheon selection spotlights the first woman to win the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, the Dutch feminist filmmaker Marleen Gorris, and her charming, vibrant tale of an emancipated farmer who refuses to conform.
Oscars® Party 2026
Experience the Academy Awards in style at the VIFF Centre! Watch the ceremony live on the big screen with a red carpet, a fully licensed bar and live hosts.