K Gopal Krishna’s Film Diary

The typical nature of a Hong zoom is provocative, with each inspection resulting in a separate personal narrative. In the following shots, a distrust of relatives drives our characters, if not into another country, at least into another place temporarily until the scandalous uncle has turned himself in; hinting slightly at a case similar to Hong’s own Night and Day… Continue reading List (2011), dir. Hong Sang-soo

Minuscule, misleading assumptions tease our confused capacity amidst self-doubt, we adopt habits but change very little, only for a point of saturation to illusion a state of betterment. In all truth, it is the same world, yesterday and today, all that has materialized itself is a suspension of disappearing energy. Dreams melt to disappointment and desires sublimate to compromises; some… Continue reading Mind Game (2004), dir. Masaaki Yuasa

Writer-Director Christopher Nolan’s works have ranged from adolescent hormonal epidemics to pure sensory experiences of three-dimensional explanations, but what we have here is a neo-noir experiment that heightens reality in short but effective Danny Boyle-esque adrenaline thrills while delivering stunning results in its tinkering with the medium. The often pondering Bill and his transitions of insecurity caught my eye; the… Continue reading Following (1998), dir. Christopher Nolan

Windows open, angel outside. Should I be careful or should I be honest? Pretense first, candour later. The first time Hong uses reflections for inquisition wherein the wrong segment, Ham is the only one who looks in the mirror; a stance as of reminiscing how far-flung has his self-deception grown, a manufactured stew of despondency. This despondency, quite visible, in… Continue reading Right Now, Wrong Then (2015), dir Hong Sang-Soo

Flowers are overrated. Happiness is over-sought. A removed line from Johar’s screenplay reads “[1]Khushi ka kya hai? Gham ke aas paas hi to bhatakti hai.” Alizeh’s gift to Ayan is a literal bed of thorns, capsizing any tincture of lust or leading attraction in their vessel of hugs, but Ayan, although subconsciously aware of the kinesis, is not ready for… Continue reading Ae Dil Hai Mushkil (2016), dir. Karan Johar

No, it neither is the greatest magic trick nor is it Michael Caine’s advice that eschews violence for the day’s liberation. Nolan advances into the beach of sterile hope with honesty, and deviates from his imposition of cheap convention that would normally shatter the religious architecture into cumbersome fragments of blatant exposition. In this meditative survival epic, Nolan bisects the… Continue reading Dunkirk (2017), dir. Christopher Nolan

The score is 16 to 9. The frigid winter pilots attire and the monochrome condenses two sides to a story. Title card fades to a classical symphony — three people exit an art exhibit; the producer derides the stagnant linearity of art while the apprentice disagrees, goes on to praise the general idea in the static picture. A small Kyongbokgoong Palace stands… Continue reading Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors (2000), dir. Hong Sang-Soo

Disappointment as surrealism. Change as bizarre. Love as a temporal function. A twisted crossroad welcomes the eminent boiling down of every human concoction — four poets amidst the ephemeral satisfaction of a seraph thrown into the same cubicle as a strident and idiosyncratic heart — not as thirsty but certainly as callous and indulgent. The question of rightful yearning is not a candid inquisition;… Continue reading The Day a Pig Fell into the Well (1996), dir. Hong Sang-soo

A svelte lady waits in a phlegmatic fashion as the wheels carry her and her undisputed weight to a mountain retreat. Although her destined other would carry a two man exposition to the same height but their roads would be dramatically diverse, a symbolic verse to the contrast of their ages. The married one would search for a replacement and… Continue reading The Power of Kangwon Province (1998), dir. Hong Sang-soo