Written and directed by Hong Sang-soo
Scandal is everywhere in Hong Sang-soo’s By The Stream. A famous actor helps out his niece by stepping in to direct a student theater skit at a college she teaches at, but he only has the time because of a past incident that saw him essentially canceled. The details are scarce, and only hinted at, but fact is he now runs a failing bookstore far from the glitz and glamor of show business.
Scandal’s also the reason he’s there in the first place, as the student director he replaces got fired because he was dating half of the student cast, all at the same time.
Accusations of impropriety don’t define By The Stream, but there is a bittersweet wistfulness. Characters dwell on what was, rue what is, but recognize the potential of what can be. A quiet story of redemption, Sang-soo’s extra-long takes provide a stage for reflection and terrific immersive acting.
Kwon Hae-hyo is Sieon, the disgraced actor in question. He arrives in Seoul, self-deprecating, but happy to reconnect with Jeonim, his niece, after years of little contact due to a fallout with her mother. Resigned to his current situation, he’s a little surprised by the effusive attention he receives from Jeonim’s supervisor, the head of the department. Jeonim’s wary of the coupling, if not dismayed.
The trio dominates most of the movie and Sang-soo’s minimalist direction is a display case for a talkative film. He essentially lets the three of them talk the sun to bed. With long takes of them sharing drinks and food, you get this sense of deepening intimacy between all three, and By The Stream almost merits rewatching just so you can focus on each of them in turn, because the scenes remain alive with non-verbal communication by those not speaking.
Later, this same technique allows for a touching scene between Sieon and his acting troupe as they lay their insecurities and innermost desires bare, and it all attains a confessional air, the room thick with emotion. This decision to let scenes run without a cut, sometimes only broken up with a panning camera, means the spell is never broken.
Hae-hyo and Kim Min-hee as Jeonim have genuine chemistry and there’s not a scene without at least one of them in it. Cho Young completes the trio as Jeonim’s boss, and her aggressive courtship of Sieon makes the opening half of By The Stream feel like more of a comedy than it actually is.
Sang-soo’s movies do move in this in-between, however. You can’t just drama or comedy, there will be elements of each in both. That’s how a movie about young men who abuse their power and estranged family members can still feel light, the delivery sneakily detached from what’s being said, and how an angry confrontation can still elicit a laugh.
A recurring motif is Jeonim sitting by a small stream, drawing sketches of the flowing water. Her sketch, an infinitesimal moment drawn out of an endless flow, it’s almost a metaphor for By The Stream and its nature as a small snapshot drama. It doesn’t set out to steer its characters into a happy ever after, pretending to convey some pivotal success or life-altering epiphany for its characters, but instead giving us a short-term look into their lives, full of emotions, exchanges, and predicaments that just about anyone can recognize and relate to.
Mikkel Frederiksen 