HELLO HARD LIGHT FANS :)
Less than one week until Hong Sang-soo’s contemplative, new(ish) film BY THE STREAM hits Richmond!
Released in 2024 with a limited release in late 2025, BY THE STREAM is what you’ve come to expect from Director Hong: adults with adult problems (read: regret), drunken outbursts of repressed desires, probably something about poetry. There’s his usual cast: the lovely Kim Min-hee (Park Chan-Wook’s THE HANDMAIDEN), Hong mainstay Kwon Hae-hyo, and relative newcomers to the Hong Sang-sooniverse, Cho Yun-hee and Ha Seong-guk. For the lo-fi camera enthusiasts among us, it also has the signature Mini-DV cinematography Hong has employed since 2020’s INTRODUCTION, and boy howdy is it lo-fi. The Hong experience is one of an incredibly thoughtful, mature screenplay – akin to Rohmer or Chekhov – filmed with the family camcorder from 2003. It’s awesome.
A maverick in Korean cinema and one of the most insightful screenwriters working today (not to mention prolific, this being his SECOND film of 2024 and 32nd overall), every Hong film is an event, a meditation on how we find joy amidst life’s mounting hardships, and a tender look at the importance of human connection.
BY THE STREAM plays at Studio Two Three this Wednesday, January 21 at 7:30pm! Tickets available here on our internet website.
Hope to see you there! 🌊
Hard Light Cinema 