NYFF 53 REVIEW: RIGHT NOW WRONG THEN
First off, I'd like to make this clear: I don't know a lot about Chinese filmmaking, so I didn’t know what to expect when I sat down in the theatre for Sang soo-Hong’s RIGHT NOW, WRONG THEN. Perhaps I was a bit confused as it started. I can honestly say that, after watching the film, I still feel pretty confused. The film begins with a loud classical overture, booming around a still teal screen with the film’s title scrawled across in grainy yellow lettering. And the music plays. And the title remains. And this happens for what feels like an eternity, but really it’s only about two minutes. Which is too much time to re-read the same four word subtitle over and over again.
Then the story begins with a middle aged man looking out his window at his young assistant thinking aloud about how young and slim she is and how he needs to bide his time.
Gross. It’s a rough way to start a film. Unfortunately it only gets worse from there. The film’s plot follows Ham Cheon-soo (played by Jae-yeong Jeong) a famous director who is visiting town for the weekend during a film festival. Everything is relatively dull until he meets Yoon Hee-jeong (played by, Min-hee Kim) at a local tourist attraction. Their “meet cute” is extremely uncomfortable, but not in the Bridget Jones sort of way, but more the Hannibal meet Clarice sort of way. The chemistry just doesn’t exist. From the painful first meeting, the film continues on to follow the two as they study some art, eat some sushi and enjoy drink at a friend’s house. Most of the dialogue is filled with uncomfortable and forced laughter between the two characters broken up by a few surprisingly long and authentic monologues about facing the dark past to build the future you want. Some moments are even charming. Yoon Hee-jeong fussing about a lack of coffee in her art studio and Ham cheon-soo pretending not to be drunk are a couple memorable moments. Then, in the definition of an anti-climactic ending, the young Yoon Hee-jeong discovers that Ham Cheon-soo is married and the two part ways.
At this point I’m thinking a few things. First, she dodged a bullet. Second, what an uncomfortable story and third, thank the Lord it is over. Except it doesn’t end, IT STARTS ALL OVER AGAIN. And it begins with the two minute overture booming around the same teal screen with those same grainy letters.
Literally the first five minutes of dialogue are the exact same. At this point I’m wondering if this is actually the film equivalent of Waiting for Godot? Is this just going to replay on loop until we figure out it’s time to abandon the theater? However, the camera angles are a bit different. Then during the uncomfortable meet cute, the sleazy director from the previous story is replaced by an honest man, who is not as sleazy, but is still extremely unlikeable because now, he is honest to a fault.
I guess this is the point? That what may be right in one scenario, may not be right in every scenario. That very well may be the case, but this actual film left me feeling unclean, disappointed and a little bit like I’d just walked into a room, but then forgotten why I had entered in the first place. Like I said though, I know very little about Chinese film, so maybe I just missed the whole point and this film will be the 500 Days of Summer of Asia.
I guess what is “right” for Ham & Yoon, may just be plain “wrong” for me.
CHRISENA'S VERDICT: SKIP IT
WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY Hong Sang-so STARRING Jung Jae-young, Kim Min-hee, Ko Ah-sung, Chai Hwa-jung, Seo Young-hwa, Kee Joo-bong, Youn Yuh-jung, Yu Jun-sang.
Playing as part of the 2015 53rd Annual New York Film Festival. For tickets and information: http://www.filmlinc.org/nyff2015/
CHRISENA RICCI once went to a costume party dressed in an all black dress and black wig. No one there could guess who she was. So she shouted out, "I'm Christina Ricci, without the T or I and add an E!" Everyone stood there confused, she was annoyed, so she stormed off. She never returned to that apartment ever again. Which is fine, because she later realized she was at the wrong party. She now lives in New York City.