Walk Up (2023)
Director: Hong Sang-soo Run Time: 97 min. Release Year: 2022
Starring: Cho Yun-hee, Kwon Hae-hyo, Lee Hye-young, Park Mi-so, Song Sun-mi
Country: South Korea
Language: Korean
About the film:
Official Selection, 2022 Toronto International Film Festival
Official Selection, 2022 New York Film Festival
Official Selection, 2022 San Sebastian Film Festival
“One of Hong’s richest fables to date…A remarkably tender film.”
In his ninth film for Hong Sangsoo, Kwon Haehyo plays Byungsoo, a film director who goes with his daughter Jeongsu, an aspiring interior designer, to a building owned by an old friend already established in the design field. She gives them a tour of the property, which includes a restaurant and cooking studio on the first two floors, her office in the basement, a residence on the third floor and an artist’s studio at the top. The three of them amicably chat the day away. But when his daughter leaves to get more wine, Byungsoo is left to spend time with the landlord and the other residents of her building.
With Walk Up (2023), Hong Sangsoo returns to an interest in structure that has been a defining characteristic of his work from the beginning. And this time the structure is a literal one. As Byunsgoo makes his way up the floors of the building, Hong fills these spaces with a profusion of everyday details spanning art, love, career, religion, dietary decisions and home renovations.
About the filmmaker:
Hong Sang-soo is a South Korean filmmaker known for his poetic storytelling. He studied at Chungang University
before receiving a BFA from California College of Arts and Crafts and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Since 1996, he has written and directed 29 feature-length films as well as several shorts. His work has screened at film festivals around the world and won top prizes at Cannes, Locarno, and Berlin, among others. His many acclaimed films include Woman on the Beach (2006), Hahaha (2010), In Another Country (2012), Our Sunhi (2013), Right Now, Wrong Then (2015), The Day After (2017), The Woman Who Ran (2020) and The Novelist’s Film (2022). He currently teaches at Konkuk University in Seoul.