HILL OF FREEDOM

The topsy-turvy chronology is the differing gag of a falsely insignificant initial event. On returning from a trip, Kwon drops a packet of letters in the staircase, letters his Japanese lover, Mori, wrote to him from Seoul hoping to arrive unannounced – the occasion for a brief fade-out not seen since The Day a Pig Fell into the Well. The chaos in which she then learns of his tale doubles the regret of having perhaps irrecoverably lost him. (AT)Hong Sang-soo