The Day After
그 후

  • Cast

    Kwon Haehyo, Kim Minhee, Kim Saebyuk

  • Release Date

    2017

  • Runtime

    92 mins

  • Cert

    18

Hong Sangsoo’s latest bulletin from the sex wars is not very droll but it’s as emotionally powerful as anything he’s done. The Day After (the Korean title Geu-hu is borrowed from Natsume Soseki’s novel Sorekara, which means “After That”) centres on a rather cowardly man and the three women whose lives he disrupts. The unhappily-married Bongwan (played by Kwon Haehyo) runs a small publishing house and has been having an affair with a young female employee. His wife finds out about it on the very day that he’s hiring Areum (Kim Minhee, now a constant presence in Hong’s films) as his new employee. This being a film by Hong, we can’t be certain what happened when or whether some scenes are or aren’t Bongwan’s fantasies. What is clear in this shimmering, monochrome movie is that a weak, middle-aged man comes up against a strong-willed and determinedly positive young woman who simply won’t let herself be bruised by the encounter. Terrific!