NOBODY’S DAUGHTER HAEWON

Korea, 2013, 90 minutes. Colour.
Directed by Hong Sangsoo.
Competition.

Hong Sangsoo is something of a fashionable director, especially in film festivals in Europe.

His plots tend to be variations on a theme: precarious relationships and eccentric characters, somewhat sexist in Woman is the Future of Man (could there be a more sexist title!), more balanced in Hahaha.

We are introduced to a highly-strung young woman who is to meet her mother who is moving to Canada. She falls asleep, which makes us wonder how much is her life asleep and dreaming or real. She meets a tourist who asks her directions and realizes that it is Jane Birkin. They have a gushy encounter. Then Haewon wakes up. The rest of the film involves a lot of talking with friends and a fair amount of drinking. A professor turns up to a gathering and it emerges that Haewon has had a relationship with him. When Haewon is out with other friends, the professor rings to arrange to casually meet her and lament his marriage and to try to rekindle the relationship, etc.

Haewon has her giddy moments as well as her serious ones. It is a light portrait of this young woman.

1. Korea in the 21st century? The city, homes, streets, universities, restaurants, touristic sites, the feel of the city?

2. Haewon as the focus of the film, her character, giddy and flighty, her story, seeing her mother after five years, her mother going to Canada, her waiting for her mother, going to sleep, how much was real and how much dream? The encounter with Jane Birkin, following her, the emotions, the embraces, the address? Her mother’s arrival, talk about her life, her mother offering some money to help? Preparing for Canada? Haewon and meeting the group, the chat, the drinking, the past relationship with one of the men, her relationship with the professor, his behavior, the secrecy? Haewon and her manner of talking, blunt?

3. Haewon and her friend, the friend’s boyfriend and telling the secret about the professor? Hopes, and ambitions? Her most serious attitudes, flip attitudes?

4. The friend, the secrets, the phone call, the arrangement with the professor, his meeting them as if by chance, talk about the relationship, havens
attitude, his sadness?

5. Insight into the character of Haewon, of relationships? Critics saying that this was of a style more western then Korean?