"Classic" Movie Review: Yourself & Yours

Yourself & Yours *** ½ / *****

Directed by: Sang-soo Hong.

Written by: Sang-soo Hong 

Starring: You-young Lee (Minjung), Kim Ju-Hyuck (Youngsoo).

 

The more films I see by Korean director Sang-soo Hong, the more I like his films. His last film, Right Now Wrong Then, is my favorite of his work so far – a film that he basically makes twice, with slight differences that completely changes our view on the characters and the events. To follow-up that film, he has made Yourself & Yours, a fascinating, amusing film that at first I thought was simply Hong playing around and having fun – and yet in the days since seeing the film, it has stuck with me more than I thought it would. It is a film that doesn’t really answer the question at its core – and is oddly stronger for it. That question is this: just how many Minjung’s are there in the film? 1, 2 or 3? And does the answer ultimately matter?

 

Like all of Hong’s film, it has a romantic (sometimes would be romantic) couple at its core. This time it’s Younsoo (Kim Ju-Hyuck), a young man who seems completely in love with his girlfriend, Minjung (You-young Lee) – until he starts to hear rumors about her. His friend tells him that he’s heard from others than Minjung likes to go out drinking with him – and when she does, she draws a lot of attention from other men. This information sends Youngsoo into a rage – and when he confronts Minjung with this information, she does not deny it forcefully enough to convince him. She storms out of his apartment, and tell him not to call her for a while. The film then follows the two lead actors after their separation – with Youngsoo regretting his actions, and trying to get back with Minjung - who seems to have disappeared, as he can never find her at work or home, and Minjung, as she seems to validate all those rumors about herself, as we do see her out drinking, numerous times, with different men. Yet, if she is ever confronted by anyone who knows Youngsoo – she acts as if she doesn’t know who they are, and that her name isn’t Minjung. Then late in the film, the first man we saw this Minjung with confronts another Minjung with another man (a filmmaker, of course, this being Hong someone has to be a filmmaker) – and again, she acts as if she doesn’t know him. It is this Minjung who will eventually come back to Youngsoo – but is she the same Minjung who left him in the first place?

 

The film is amusing to watch, as Minjung takes control of the narrative, and in many ways is the most honest character in the film – even if she is blatantly lying at times (if she is just one person, she lies constantly). Yet, the thesis of the movie may well be her line she tells to one of her boyfriend’s “I’ve never met a truly impressive man”. The line draws a laugh when she says – as does that entire scene, as she is breaking up with him so honestly and brightly that it almost seems cruel. Yet, by the end of the film, she may have found that man in Youngsoo – who because of their time apart actually has grown, and become, at least less of a fool than when the movie begins. The film may ultimately be about how we can never really know another person – that what makes them themselves is something that is only known to themselves alone – but at the end of the film, Youngsoo is smart enough to at least realize this.

 

Ultimately, I’m not sure Yourself & Yours rises to the level of Hong’s best work – I still prefer Right Now, Wrong Then and The Day He Arrives (although, admittedly, Hong has been one of the most prolific directors in world cinema, and he has a large back catalogue of films I haven’t seen) – but it’s more impressive than it first appeared to be. It’s made with his trademark style – lots of long, unmoving, unbroken shots, frequent zoom-ins, and lots of drinking (although, this time it’s beer not soju – the significance of the difference, and I’m sure there is one, is lost on me). Yet he pushes the film into some very interesting territory. The more films of his I see, the more films I want to see.

 

Note: I saw this film at TIFF 2016 and wrote this review then. The film still hasn’t come out in North America since – and at this point, probably won’t, so rather than sit on the review, I thought I’d post it.