The Day He Arrives (2011)

In Hong Sang-soo’s The Day He Arrives (2011), a young film director Seong-Jun (Yoo Jun-sang) walks down the street of Seoul, wearing a puffy coat and a travelling backpack, intending to stay with a friend, a film critic, Young-ho (Kim Sang-joon). The director has made four movies but is in an on-going hiatus, living further out in the countryside teaching film studies. He looks young, but when he starts drinking with uni students who recognise him (though not all have seen his films), he doesn’t look so young. And yet, early in the film’s structure, Seong-Jun becomes highly emotional after one night of drinking; he gets angry with the students and runs away, and then winds up crying in an ex-girlfriend’s (Kim Bo-kyung) bedroom floor who hasn’t seen him in two years. Later, when Seong-jun sits in a bar and provides thoughts about coincidence and is praised for being “thoughtful,” it’s hard to not think back on what’s underneath his composure. Contrasts and coincidences become discussed, and emerge as themes for The Day He Arrives.

Understanding it’s a Hong Sang-soo movie, I knew I was in for extended scenes of characters drinking and talking in bars, here shot in black-and-white cinematography. Yet as the days pass, and Seong-Jun’s visit wears on, repetitions become a playful element. He bumps into the same acting student in the street each day. He and his film critic friend, and another woman Bo-ram (Song Seon-mi), go for a drink in a bar called “Novel.” And the bar owner is a young woman who arrives late to her own business, Ye-jeon (also played by Bo-kyung); Young-ho is such a regular that he lets himself in and sets up the drinks. As Seong-Jun’s ex-girlfriend sends phone messages that he reads but he never responds to, he becomes attracted to the bar owner, mainly because she reminds him of his ex.

The character of Seong-Jun is a bit of a joke, a self-involved guy in his 30s who seems to keep making the same mistakes without self-awareness, and something the film observes with wry amusement. With the black and white imagery, and the snowy and chilly climate of Seoul, as characters shiver outside and long to be in a bar drinking for warmth, there is something comforting about this extended hang-out. Something I simply took with linearity as each day mirrors the last, and reading other responses after the movie, there’s also a bit of a game Sang-soo is playing here. Is this the next day, or a different outcome? As characters refer to things that happened previously without recognition, or conversations are repeated without reference to the past, I felt as a viewer a bit addled, like I myself was feeling the effects of a nightly drinking session. Or is it more about an existential ennui, arriving again and again, and yet slightly out of step with your surroundings. I really enjoyed The Day He Arrives, and found it very satisfying upon viewing and reflection, and especially when I understood what the last scene was going to be, and a sense of sadness that I also found to be hilarious. Available to stream on SBS On Demand. Recommended.

Claire’s Camera (2017)

I think it was Gene Siskel who determined a movie’s quality by the following dictum: Is this film more interesting than a documentary of the same actors having lunch? The films of Hong Sang-soo sometimes feel like you’re just watching a documentary actors sitting around and eating, though a key difference in the Sang-soo world is that they’ll also be drinking. My enjoyment of Claire’s Camera (2017) was often predicated on the delight in watching Kim Min-hee and Isabelle Huppert stand on a beach in Cannes complementing each other. Sang-soo’s film was shot during the 2016 Cannes Film Festival and the festival is occasionally discussed, yet happening off-camera in the background. The actors are not playing themselves but performing as characters, and yet, as often the case with Sang-soo, there’s a meta-textual element.

Min-hee plays Jeon who works for a production team in town to premiere a Korean director’s film at Cannes, Jeong Jin-yeong. When the film opens, Min-hee’s character is let go from her job on account of not having an “honest” character. Mystified and distressed, she decides to spend some time at Cannes since she can’t book a flight home. Eventually she crosses paths with Claire (Huppert), a French woman visiting Cannes for the first time to see a friend’s film. A teacher with an interest in photography, she uses a polaroid camera to continually document what’s around her, including people. For some not familiar with Sang-soo’s whole thing – how he writes scenes the morning of shooting, often constructing the narrative as he goes, mainly focused on people talking and sitting and drinking – this film might seem slight. There’s an obvious air that it was shot quickly and cheaply, and that there might be five key locations often visited twice. To me, this was very charming and funny, humour born from observation and the interactions between people, and Huppert’s screen persona always imbues even a kind-hearted, lovely character with a strange, off-kilter aura. And it has sad moments often revolving around Min-hee’s treatment, and her poise as a presence. Recommended.

Modern Girls (1986)

Often described as L.A.’s answer to After Hours, Modern Girls (1986) feels much more indebted to the success of Desperately Seeking Susan as both are fuelled by a non-stop new wave soundtrack and boho club fashions. Taking place over the course of one night (a personal favourite sub-genre of mine), Modern Girls follows a quartet of characters hopping across the LA nightlife of warehouse parties, bars and exclusive clubs.

Opening credits snapshot the trio of roommates during their workday: clock-watcher with attitude Daphne Zuniga, pet-store bombshell Virginia Madsen and make/up store dreamer Cynthia Gibb. Desperate for a fun night to get over being fired, Gibb’s character puts the story in motion, conscripting a straight-laced driving instructor (Clayton Ronner) as their chauffeur; he’s arrived at the girls’ apartment for a date with Madsen’s character, though she’s already forgotten about him and left. So they all head out to a trendy nightspot, and for the first thirty minutes, the film feels like a light, airy hang-out, content to soak up the nightlife, the outfits and the music.

Lightly comic in observation, particularly as Ronner’s character is slowly inducted into ‘The Scene’ as well as an eventual make-over. Then, as the night goes on and the characters move to the next location, the movie dials up the cartoonish antics a bit more with car chases, mistaken identity moments, a few dated gags, and a touch of danger courtesy of Madsen being continually cornered by creeps that she’s rescued from. There are fun performances, particularly from Zuniega and Gibb who have the most to do, and Ronner especially who also plays two roles, the intellectual sad-sack who becomes friendly with the female trio, and a Billy Idol type rocker named Bruno X that Gibb’s character is chasing after.

Scripted by Laurie Craig and Anita Rosenberg, and directed by Jerry Kramer (a music video director who also made… Moonwalker, erm), Modern Girls is ultimately a light post-high school teen comedy romance with an ultimate focus on female friendship. Less about the anxiety of not being able to get home like in After Hours. More about the exhaustion of an all-nighter but there’s still a bit of magic out there. Depeche Mode’s ‘But Not Tonight’ is its theme song, and features other tunes by Toni Basil, Icehouse and Jesus and the Mary Chain. Big fan of the crushed blue gloves that Zuneiga wears, and the pink cigarettes that Gibb smokes. Available to stream on Tubi (US). Recommended.

Strange Colours (2017)

I watched director Alena Lodkina’s Strange Colours (2017) on SBS On Demand, a few days after I saw Ivan Sen’s Limbo in cinemas. While Limbo works in another recurring genre in Australian film – the crime genre – and there are clear differences in where they are shot, what they are looking at, particularly indigenous trauma and police violence in Limbo, both movies fit in a long tradition of Australian arthouse cinema mood pieces where characters wander through a new part of the country, understanding themselves as they get to know a place.

Strange Colours is not a crime movie, but a family drama, and it is set in the outback opal mining town of Lightning Ridge, NSW. Milena (Kate Cheel) has taken a long bus ride to visit her ailing, estranged father Max (Daniel P. Johns). As Max recuperates in hospital, Milena meets the locals, predominantly men, a lot of them grizzled and old, and constantly drinking cans of beer. Despite the initial tension over Milena being a young woman in this masculine environment and the casual sexism in every encounter, this is not Wake In Fright. There is something different and introspective here. Milena is not that talkative, and we see her wander around, drink beer and hang out with Max’s partner in the mine, Frank (Justin Courtin), who is mostly quiet himself. The men might be a bit too chatty but they are happy to be by themselves. Yet Max insists on reaching out to Milena who is unsure whether to accept his attempts at a family relationship or just keep moving on. Tone is a matter of degrees, and I think with the writing and the directing of the performances nail the tone here. There is enough modulated for me to connect with and think about the characters without them feeling like cyphers, and there is a sense of authenticity in the cast, from the few experienced actors in the main roles and the non-actor locals who are expertly woven into the fabric of the story. It doesn’t feel like a television drama where everything is sign-posted. There is something cinematic in its preference for the elliptical and the unsaid. Though clocking in under 90 minutes, the film’s style is to hang out and take in the vibes of the place, the self-exile that it affords by being cut off and isolated.

Lodkina had previously made a documentary about the area and there’s a sense of trust and respect to this fictional narrative, and how it uses the small community as a backdrop to this father and daughter relationship. Cheel is great in the leading role, reserved and thoughtful, and Johns is a strong, authentic presence. I really liked Strange Colours and enjoyed its rhythms, determined by its sense of place and scale. Cinematography by Michael Latham and score by Mikey Young. Recommended.

Outside Noise (2021)

Another hour, another Ted Fendt film viewed on Mubi. Outside Noise (2021) was more accessible than the previous Fendt film I watched, Classical Period, and this film reminded me of other indie hang-out movies like Girlfriends or Funny Ha Ha. The scene that reoccurs throughout is one character asking another, “Shall we go for a walk outside?” Across its short running time, the film moves between countries and follows one or two characters. There’s Daniela (Daniela Zahlner) who is visiting New York in the opening sequence. Later, Daniela visits Berlin and meets up with her friend, Mia (Mia Sellman). They are somewhere in their twenties and post-graduate students; they are united by their sense of sleeplessness and insomnia. When Daniela returns to her apartment and life in Vienna, the movie moves forward to Mia visiting Daniela in Vienna as part of an academic conference trip that she is part of. There is also Mia’s friend, Nastacha (Nastacha Manthe), who Daniela doesn’t know that well – the three hang out, talk about studying psychology and amble about in parks. The most tension that develops is over someone borrowing a bit of money. The biggest piece of action that happens is when someone’s lunch is used against a complete jerk. Outside Noise is a plotless hang-out, content to capture the beautiful lighting in small European apartments, all of which uses natural sunlight and is shot on 16mm film. The film conveys a sense of aimless wander when you have a free day but feel sapped of energy and motivation. I really liked it, and the main trio of people in the film are great, particularly Zahlner and Sellman who are also listed as co-writers; they have such great, natural personalities and a low-key sense of style. The director Fendt himself pops up in a small role as the type of transplant American in Vienna who immediately lectures visitors on the best places to go. Recommended.