I wonder if Kim Min-hee knew what she was signing up for when she publicly became Hong Sang-soo’s life partner in addition to his creative one. Starting from On the Beach at Night Alone (2017), Hong’s first effort after his affair and divorce came to light, his films have often excavated various aspects of the situation, with Kim sometimes cast in the muse/lover/mistress role. The Novelist’s Film (2022), shot by Hong almost entirely on (what looks like) high-contrast black and white DV, arrives in the same vein.
I should note that Kim’s Gil-soo, an actor who’s left the biz, doesn’t appear till about a third of the way in. The protagonist is Jun-hee (Lee Hye-young), a writer who feels like she’s losing her spark. To shake things up, she leaves Seoul to visit a friend (Seo Young-hwa) who used to write but now owns a bookstore. Jun-hee runs into her as she’s chewing out her assistant, Hyun-woo (Park Mi-so). One encounter leads to another, and meeting Gil-soo leads to a coincidental drinking gathering at the bookstore with yet another old friend, bombastic poet Man-soo (Gi Ju-bong). Jun-hee sees a kindred spirit in Gil-soo and has the idea to cast her and her husband in a short film. We see a small part of that film; then, with a short coda, we’re out.
