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the audience applauded

Crappy film

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

This film shows how it would be like to have a do over when it comes to our romantic interest. You know those times when you met someone you have that moment with and ask yourself what it would have been like if you did things differently. Because you missed out on the chance, because you couldn't be more honest with yourself or be more bold with the situation. That is what this film is, it's basically the fantasy of Hong Sang-soo in my opinion. It's like he wrote this whole script for the actress in his film played by Kim Min-hee. The plot is about a introverted and married director falling for a female artist and thus somewhat realistic but mundane conversations ensues. You know the conversations that ensues between introverts at a bar. Actually you can walk into just about any restaurant in Korea with alcohol at night and you can hear similar conversations as this one. The director Hong Sang-soo actually had an affair with the actress in this film. Like the actual plot itself, he is a married man as well. Despite the director showcasing this as an artistic indie film I just couldn't see much artistic merits with this one. It was like watching introverted people having mundane conversations with one another. I am a introvert but even I couldn't find anything interesting about the conversation between the two. Like I said watching this was like watching a fantasy movie for the director Hong Sang-soo.5/10

I went in with low expectations, based on reviews I read, because I couldn't get in for the movie I was actually planning to watch. But it turned out to be one of the more satisfying movies I was able to catch at MAMI 2015. It's a little love story, sort of, told twice. A famous director of art-house cinema is killing time in a sleepy Korean town by visiting the one local attraction, a Palace turned into a museum. A scheduling mix has caused him to reach a day early for a planned lecture at the local film festival (yea, lot of self-referential stuff). He chats up a young woman who has given up a modeling career to become an artist. The events that follow unfold over the course of the day and the next, until his lecture and return to Seoul.There are subtle variations in how events unfold causing the male protagonist to fall flat on his face in the first telling ('Wrong then') but coming to a more fulfilling culmination in the second sequence ('Right now'). He's a cad, but the second time around, turns out to be a lovable one.Don't have too many expectations, and you will find a sweet movie.

Right Now, Wrong Then is a film of two distinct halves. In 2 days of the life of a filmmaker, Ham Cheon-soo, in town a day early for a screening of his latest work at a local film festival. He meets a younger woman, Yoon Hee-Jeong, and immediately falls for her. She's an artist, and he views and comments on her work, then they go out to dinner where they drunkenly bear their souls. It results in an invitation to a friend's small party where a revelation embarrasses Ham to the point where they part ways on a sour note. He attends his film to a small crowd, conducts a hungover Q&A, and retires, walking away from the town for good. Roll title card "Right Now" rather than "Right Then." The film literally repeats from the beginning, erasing the first half. Like Groundhog Day but only a once-over, we get every scene again but from a slightly different wishful approach.This second time the couple are honest, unlike the first time where Ham tries too hard to impress and Yoon retreats. Again, they fall in love, but given Ham admits to already being married, their feelings are mutual and emotional without being sexual. He may embarrass himself once more at the aforementioned dinner, but it does not result in a cruel parting, instead drawing them closer. It's a quaint experiment given the relaxed tone. The first half on its own is not a movie, and neither is the second. They're co-dependent to give the narrative meaning, but it's far from cinematic in tone. It's a filmmaker's revisionism of what could have been a perfect evening had the characters acted suitably. It's honest, rather than romantic – though the chemistry still bubbles in the air – and it's utterly bittersweet, in a similar vein to Before Sunrise, but strictly not Before Sunset. It's my first film from Korean director Hong Sang-soo and ostensibly from his fans and critics, Right Now Wrong Then is firmly his style – including the Woody Allen-esque romance between an older creative similar to the director himself, and a pretty younger woman. The atmosphere is very modest with simple photography, though Sang-soo does punctuate some scenes with careful zooms. It's very easy-going filmmaking, and its concept makes the second half easier to watch because you know exactly where it's heading as it retraces steps while you have a sharp eye out for the subtle changes that make all the differences, but it doesn't beg you to keep an eye on every detail. Those differences aren't grandstanding though the narrative is clearly motivated by them. Sometimes a scene will repeat its approach entirely despite the previous scene being radically revised. It's trying to be very nuanced rather than having a 'sliding doors/butterfly effect' where causality makes the universe shift places. Instead, the outcome isn't much different but the overall feeling is utterly converted. It's all down to the performances of its two leads, Jeong Jae-Yeong and Kim Min-Hee, to create that tone with their chemistry, who were most likely shooting both halves back to back, location by location. In both halves, Ham is still a jerk with a kind of irritating laugh, but all the characters are deeply human even if Sang-soo doesn't peel back their layers every time. There's a big heart buried in its very slight execution. However, Right Now Wrong Then is not necessarily about how honesty is a better policy – though Ham's harsh analysis of Hee-Jeong's art in the second half remains a sting that takes a long time to settle – but it's about how it's possible to love again. In this case, love doesn't have to be a complete turbulous affair, but it can still be a fulfilling and life-affirming night if approached accordingly.8/10

I've been a fan of Sang-soo for some years yet his frustrating insistence to continually repeat himself is now annoying me. Sure you can guarantee failed romance and time wasted drunk in korean bars in Sang-soo films and I'm fine with that in theory.The problem I have is that everything else once you've seen a few just seems so repetitive as well... Ie the kinds of creative characters he chooses to portray, the form of the films, the dynamics between characters, the voice over narration, I could go on and on. In totality, they are just far far too repetitive for me. I was absolutely fine with all this until this film. For me this film was like the product of a once great now semi-senile 90 year old director just repeating himself after a golden age of great films decades before.He really is starting to make the decrepit Woody Allen look original! I'll probably watch the next Sang-soo film that comes out as well but with a lot more caution not expecting much.