Hong Sang-soo

Small talk over soju, among writers, filmmakers and actors. Hong makes his films quickly and cheaply, often with the same cast, and most of them are conversations. While her husband is away in The Woman Who Ran, a woman visits two friends and runs into a third by chance; in In Water a director, a cinematographer and an actress wait on location for him to have an idea. Scenes run long, the camera pushes in on a face mid-scene, and you listen for what nobody quite says.

Signature

• Long single takes with sudden zooms.
• Visits, walks and drinking sessions that take up most of the film.
• Repetition and variation: the same encounter told twice, differently.
• Kim Min-hee in many of the recent films.