Movie Review: Right Now, Wrong Then (2015)

What to Speak and What Not to...Anyway All's Just A Matter of Chance

Movie: Right Now, Wrong Then

Dir: Hong Sangsoo

While Hong Sangsoo's recent feature On the Beach at Night Alone deals with the results of a strained relationship which its leading lady has with a film director and the consequent impact of such an endeavour on her overall demeanour and psyche, his earlier film Right Now, Wrong Then is talking about how a relationship or one's life for that matter, could change entirely based on the minutest details involved in a conversation.

The things that we converse and our actions at a particular moment might not always be a display of our 'Right' selves, and being our 'Wrong' selves (which could be governed by our mood or anything that surrounds us) could serve in seeking a wrong-turn which is often against the desire of the people involved. Or is it just blind chance that’s at work here? Anyway, Hang Sangsoo's film is in two parts: the first part dwells on the turn of events which leads the film director's relationship with the painter into an unpleasant conclusion, the second part treats the same scenario of Ham Cheon-soo meeting Yoon Hee-jeong under a different light, without making it a tad bit unengaging.

There’s no background score to heighten any emotions, the location sounds along with an almost unturbulently still camerawork, which occasionally closes in or takes a slight left pan, suits the film’s unassuming nature. It’s not trying too hard to preach it’s own merit or throwing in deep philosophical questions, it simply examines the slightest of contrasts in our lives which can actually influence us. Sangsoo's modest filmmaking might be reason enough for him to be not so celebrated as his counterparts like Park Chan-wook and the Oscar winning Bong Joon-ho.

Jung Jae-young as the director and Kim Min-hee as the lady who is finding solace as a painter, excels in their roles by being uncanny and nonchalant while they are drunk, and gaining a certain kind of composure when the film asks them for it. Credit goes to them for acting on a similar setting for a second time in a manner that distinguishes their second endeavour without overdoing it.

Subtlety distinguishes the film, be it the instance of the Buddha sculpture acting as a marker for the painter's home, or the director’s act of getting naked in front of the ladies, everything is a breezy affair. The film surely is neither a debate over its two distinguishably similar halves nor is it a discourse on what is right and what is wrong. But is it asking us to behave more diligently in our daily lives? Maybe.

Watch it for Hong Sangsoo's unassumingly subtle filmmaking👍

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