The Power of Kangwon Province

In only his second film, Hong Sangsoo was conducting stunning structural experiments. In the film’s first part, Jisook, recently free of a relationship with a married man, joins two girlfriends for a vacation in Kangwon, a mountainous region near Seoul in South Korea’s northeast, and quickly starts to make the same mistakes all over again, tumbling into bed with a married policeman after a sloppy drinking party. In the latter section, we catch up with Jisook’s ex, Sangwon, who happens to be visiting Kangwon at the same time, threatening to cross Jisook’s path.

"Complex in structure and subtler in effect. Virtuoso filmmaking." — Time Out