By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Sang-soo Hong
Original language title: U Ri Sunhi
Country: south_korea
Year: 2014
Running time: 88
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2942512/combined
Bruce says: “Critics, fans and detractors alike, have compared Hong Sang-soo to Yasujiro Ozu largely because he is perceived as making the same film over and over OUR SUNHI clearly has broken that mold if for no other reason than the protagonist is female this time around.
“For me, Hong is more reminiscent of Eric Rohmer; his characters talk and talk, philosophize, make ridiculous excuses for bad behavior – then repeat the cycle, learning very little in the process. They are not bad or evil people, just misdirected. Yu-mi Jeong is vaguely reminiscent of Béatrice Romand in her ability to create a character with whom one can empathize yet be revolted by her annoying, manipulative style. She is protagonist and victim wrapped into a single whole.
“Sunhi (Yu-mi Jeong), after a long absence of perhaps several years, returns to her college campus presumably to get a letter of recommendation for grad school in the USA. Within hours she not only meets the professor she came to see but also runs into her old boyfriend and a married professor who decides it is time for a little extracurricular activity. The professor who writes the letter of recommendation is a shy bachelor. The married professor is a professional seducer. The boyfriend is a lovesick puppy. The three men know each other well so the ways in which they camouflage their desires to each other is comical.
“What is not so comical is the irritating personality of Sunhi. She is obviously a woman who knows how to corral a man and make him beg for affection. She appears at times to be a great manipulator and, at other times, an indecisive child; she is full of contradiction, a true yin-yang master.
“The professor agrees to write a letter of recommendation. When Sunhi reads it she is appalled. It is a letter that reveals none of her positive qualities. The professor actually speculates in the letter that graduate school may be what she needs to find and fulfill herself. Sunhi objects and asks that he rewrite the letter. Meanwhile she gets drunk with her old boyfriend one day and gets drunk with the married professor the following day. “Soon it appears that all three men are drunk with love. Which man does Sunhi favor? Will Sunhi get the letter of recommendation she wants? One gets the opinion that the point of the film is not to achieve any sort of resolution but to illustrate how people foolishly interact when they have conflicting goals and feelings.
“The three men are all appealing and amusing. But OUR SUNHI is clearly Yu-mi Jeong’s film – she conveys the perfect combination of fascinating and frustrating. 3.5 cats”
“OUR SUNHI screened as part of the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s 2014 ‘Film Comment Selects’ series.”