‘On the Occasion of Remembering the Turning Gate‘ (the original Korean title is ‘Saenghwalui balgyeon‘), made in 2002 and released on screens in 2004, is the fourth film by South Korean director Hong Sang-soo and probably the first in which he demonstrated artistic maturity and exposed to viewers many of the characteristics of his talent, which would bring him success in award-winning and acclaimed films in the decades that followed. The title referred to an unhappy love story between an emperor’s daughter and an ordinary mortal, and the cinematic narrative chooses two stories that exemplify precisely such unlucky love stories. The difference lies in the source of the failure of these relationships. These are not to be found in irreconcilable class differences, but mainly in the lack of will or power to communicate between the hero of the film, a theater and film actor in a professional and personal crisis caused by the failure of his latest film, and the two young women he meets in two different erotic adventures, which have surprising and mysterious similarities between them. Do those who are lonely owe their situations to fate or is it perhaps their own fault and their inability to express their feelings at the right time?
How significant is the fact that the hero of the film is an actor? When he enters his love relationships, does he play a role? When is he the experienced playboy and when is he the sincere lover? The inability to express his feelings is reminiscent of the lack of communication between the characters in the films that Michelangelo Antonioni made in Italy four decades earlier. Words do not help the heroes, the exchanges of replica seem to be more a way of ensuring that the relationships continue, feelings are expressed through gestures, through the way the heroes eat and drink (they drink a lot!) or make love. In the end, however, silences dominate and the danger of loneliness is constantly looming.
One of Hong Sang-soo‘s later films tells twice the story of a meeting between a man and a woman. The viewer is left to discover how the differences and changed nuances that a different facial expression or spoken word, or a different angle of filming lead to a change in the perception of the same event. Something similar happens in this film, in which the hero’s two love relationships seem to start from very similar premises to end very differently. The viewers are invited to witness two love stories, or perhaps it is a single story that just happens in a different place and time. The camera is skillfully placed and directed, the actors are well chosen and are professionally directed by a film director who was just starting out, but was already a master in filmmaking. To be seen and enjoyed.