'What Does That Nature Say To You'

Donghwa (Ha Seongguk) is a fledgling poet in his thirties. He rejects material aspirations and seeks to lead a life dedicated to truth and beauty. On a lazy afternoon, he drives his girlfriend, Junhee (Kang Soyi), back to her parents’ home outside Seoul. In the driveway, they run into her father (Kwon Haehyo), who is strangely interested in Donghwa’s dinged up old car. He takes it for a spin around the block, then invites Donghwa to stay and meet the family: him, his wife (Cho Yunhee), who also writes poetry, and Junhee’s reclusive sister (Park Miso), who practices the gayageum, a traditional string instrument. They end up wiling away the day together, visiting a temple by the river, climbing the hill near the house, watching the sunset, and, sure enough, imbibing drinks. Egged on by Junhee’s dad, Donghwa gets progressively more drunk as the day advances. Finally, he makes a fool of himself at dinner. Then everything begins to unravel for the poet: his relationship, his art, his revolutionary ideals.

In his 33rd feature, Hong Sangsoo spins a bitterly comic fable on the trials of living simply and righteously in our world. Grounded in place and composed of subtly complex long takes, which coolly observe the actors tightrope walking across lines of dialogue, the film is a wonder of intuitive formal rigor. As it charts this sincere (perhaps naive) young man’s comeuppance in the face of indifferent realities, "What Does That Nature Say to You" blossoms into one of Hong’s richest and most revealing character portraits.

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