Yourself and Yours showing at Brisbane Asia Pacific Film Festival. Image via Brisbane Asia Pacific Film Festival.
‘I don’t know anyone called Minjung,’ offers a young woman (Lee You-young, Fatal Intuition) when she’s seemingly recognised by grey-haired writer Jaeyoung (Kwon Hae-hyo, In Another Country) in a cafe. She’s enjoying a beer alone, and he’s certain that he knows her, but she stridently contends otherwise. Then the same thing occurs again, with filmmaker Sangwon (Yu Jun-sang, Right Now, Wrong Then) also convinced that they’ve met previously. Sometimes, the woman in question says that this happens all of the time. Sometimes, she reveals that she has a twin sister.
Minjung does indeed exist, and she looks identical to the femme favoured by various men in her favourite drinking spot. She has also been known to indulge in a few beverages and have conversations with guys that her boyfriend, painter Young-soo (Kim Joo-hyuck, The Truth Beneath), doesn’t know. Yourself and Yours starts with this discovery, jumping to their relationship coming to an end when Young-soo confronts Minjung about her reported actions, and then presenting situations that could involve her doppelgängers. At the same time, the smitten Young-soo has difficulty locating Minjung, and resorts to spending his time loitering outside of her apartment.
Given that Yourself and Yours is written and directed by Hong Sang-soo (Hill of Freedom), perhaps nothing is as it seems. Or, perhaps everything is. Whether the women seen are one and the same might drive the film’s main narrative game, and yet it’s not the primary topic of contemplation in this light, humour-filled effort. As the prolific South Korean filmmaker is known to do, he once again thrusts concepts of memory and identity – as well their interconnected nature – to the fore. How a personality can manifest in a variety of roles and guises; how it can be perceived by different people, as well as in various ways by the same person; what it can reflect: these notions all bubble to the surface. Minjung or one of her alter-egos expresses the underlying sentiment best: ‘knowing is not as important as we think’.
Yourself and Yours is comical. It charts awkward altercations. It uses an obvious quirk to entertaining effect. And while beer replaces soju as the alcohol of choice, it is obviously a feature only Hong could’ve brought to life, with his upbeat score, fondness for long takes and intermittent zooms firmly in place. It’s also astutely observed, even as the clarity and unaffected gaze of its images make it appear as though it could’ve been shot in real time and hurriedly edited together. Hong crafts his films as if he’s simply watching ordinary people, while simultaneously layering his gimmickry over average-seeming lives in order to reveal broader truths. His latest mightn’t prove as elaborate as others in his back catalogue –which also includes Hahaha, Oki’s Movie, The Day He Arrives, Nobody’s Daughter Haewon and Our Sunhi, just in the past seven years – but it’s still engaging and illuminating.
A storytelling trickster, Hong may happily be; however, his knack for casting is just as an important trait of his work. Indeed, Lee’s telling expressions couldn’t be more pivotal – not in terms of solving the playful puzzle her character/s become immersed in, but in oozing complexity in little more than her changing reactions to the men desperately seeking Minjung. Her male co-stars play their parts exactly as required; if repetition sets in as they insist and obsess, the subtleties of Lee’s many responses ensure the same is never true of the movie as a whole. Glance fleetingly at any scene from Yourself and Yours, and it might all seem the same. Peer deeper, and the fact that it isn’t is the source of many of the feature’s charms.
Rating: 4 stars out of 5
Yourself and Yours
Director: Hong Sang-soo
South Korea, 2016, 86 mins
Brisbane Asia Pacific Film Festival
http://brisbaneasiapacificfilmfestival.com/
23 November – 4 December 2016
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