Hong Sansoo's On the Beach at Night Alone

Hong Sansoo's On the Beach at Night Alone (2017, the title from a Walt Whitman poem) continues his series of minimalist talkfests, shot mostly in single takes with occasional zooms.  Min-hee Kim plays Young-hee, who has fled from Korea to Hamburg, Germany to escape her married lover.  She thinks her lover will follow her but he doesn't.  She spends her time in Germany with a Korean female friend and they talk about love and desire, which her slightly older friend has given up on. Eventually Young-hee returns to Korea and the beach town of Gangneung, where she runs into her lover, a film director, and his crew.  As they all get together and drink lots of soju recriminations and accusations fly and Young-hee wonders if she is perhaps better off alone. A fascinating minimalist film.