In Front of Your Face

A celebrated Korean actor returns home and reassesses her life in Hong Sangsoo’s warmly humorous drama.

After living abroad, a former actress returns to South Korea to reconnect with her past. Over the course of one day in Seoul, via various encounters, which include her younger sister, a shopkeeper who lives in her converted childhood home and, finally, a well-known filmmaker with whom she would like to make a comeback, we come to understand her resentments and regrets, her financial difficulties, and the reason for her sense of disconnection.

Prolific Korean director Hong Sangsoo’s second film of 2021 was his eleventh to be invited to the Cannes Film Festival. Its focus on themes presented through a narrative approach is familiar to the writer-director, yet still presents a fresh – and funny – take on everyday life. A characteristically contemplative work, Hong Sangsoo’s relaxed storytelling belies an insightful work that gradually reveals its layered depths and meaning. The filmmaker’s most accessible work yet? Well, maybe…