South Korean director Hong Sang-soo has long been associated with quiet dramas, exploring human relationships and interactions through naturalistic dialogue, set in the world of narcissistic arthouse directors, starstruck actresses and lots and lots of alcohol-fueled rants and teary confessions to punctuate the more low-key proceedings. His 2015 film, “Right Now, Wrong Then”, doesn't do much to stray from this setup but once again, spins his preoccupation with love and fidelity (and, frankly, with himself) into interesting new directions.
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Renowned filmmaker Ham Chun-su (Jung Jae-young) arrives in Suwon a day early for a screening of one of his films. While passing the time he notices a young woman (Kim Min-hee) and is immediately smitten with her beauty. Later, as he's sitting by a temple, he sees her again and decides to strike up a conversation. The woman, Yoon Hee-jung, knows who he is when he introduces himself and agrees to accompany him to a coffee shop where she tells him more about herself, saying she used to work as a model before deciding to pursue painting to feel more fulfilled. They leave for her studio where the intrigued director watches her paint and waxes philosophically about her artwork and admiration for her creative process. Enjoying each other's company, the pair head for a sushi restaurant where they get drunk and flirt heavily before Hee-jung says she needs to go to a friend's party and invites Chun-su to come along. Once there, the director's mask of sincerity begins to slip as some of his secrets are revealed to an unsuspecting and disheartened Hee-jung, putting a damper on their time together and ending the evening on a sour note. However, after a volatile Q&A session at the screening of his film the next day, Chun-su, surprisingly, gets another chance to do things right this time.
“Right Now, Wrong Then” allows its characters to dwell in conversation in long, uninterrupted scenes where Hong attempts to build on his realist sensibility by heightening the sense that an authentic, “real” conversation is taking place (more so than films of this ilk usually do). While the two leads' dynamic is perhaps reminiscent of films like Sofia Coppola's “Lost in Translation”, its structure is quite unique in that, halfway-through the film, it offers Hong's avatar another opportunity to not repeat the same mistakes he made when meeting Hee-jung the first time around. While he presents himself to her in a rather disingenuous way during the film's front half, keeping important facts about his life hidden and flattering her about how she approaches her art by using the same exact words he uses to describe his own process, he comes off as much more honest, caring and vulnerable in the second.
Hee-jung is a lonely woman looking for direction in life. She lives with her mother and lacks confidence, things that make her an easy conquest in the eyes of the womanizing Chun-su, a man so obsessed with sex, he has to talk himself out of trying to sleep with his female assistant director (Go Ah-sung). But as he becomes more receptive to her, the audience sees another side of the beautiful artist as well, one that seems less adrift than it would seem at first, a person that's perhaps less naive and merely unafraid of letting people into her heart, even if longterm happiness isn't an option. Once the two would-be lovers are put on more equal footing, their exchanges become warmer and more open, allowing for a more complete picture of their personalities to emerge, as opposed to the cautious, manipulative and deceptive dynamic of the first hour.
The openness and spontaneity with which Hong approaches his scenes offer a lot of room for his performers to portray the subtleties happening between two people with a keen interest in each other, the near-imperceptible push-pull of romantic (and sexual) tension and Jung and Kim make wonderful use of that room. While Part 1 is marked by a more dour and pessimistic tone, which is reflected in the performances, Part 2 sees the film and its characters opening themselves up further, allowing them to inhabit a wider array of emotions and end their story on a bittersweet note.
“Right Now, Wrong Then” marked the first collaboration between Hong and Kim, the two having worked together on numerous movies since, including 2017's “On the Beach at Night Alone”, in which they worked through their tumultuous private relationship, a relationship that caused quite a stir in South Korea, since Hong was married to another woman. But romantic feelings aside, it's plain to see that the creative partnership works well for the two artists and lovers and if their current run is any indication, it will likely produce more outstanding results in the future.
