Admirers of Isabelle Huppert and Hong Sangsoo May Celebrate That They’re Together Again, Though ‘A Traveler’s Needs’ Is Not Their Best

Hong Sangsoo has directed 30 films since 1996. A typical movie-goer, even one who frequents the artier precincts of contemporary cinema, can be forgiven for not having attended to each of the Korean director’s movies. Even the most stalwart of film junkies should be cut some slack: There are only so many hours in a lifetime.Upon receiving notice that Mr. Hong would be working with Isabelle Huppert on his latest venture, “A Traveler’s Needs,” I sat up and took notice — only to discover that this would be his third collaboration with the French actress. As an ardent fan of Ms. Huppert, I was chagrined to discover how far out of the loop I was about these efforts. As a cautious admirer of Mr. Hong, my surprise was more tempered. The director’s artistic terrain — so purposeful, languorous, and minor key — can sometimes be as resistible as it is of a piece.Ms. Huppert’s first film with Mr. Hong, “In Another Country” (2012), came about after the two bumped into each other at art openings at Paris and Seoul. “He asked me if I wanted to be in [a film],” the actress averred, “and I said, ‘Yeah.’” Five years later, Ms. Huppert and Mr. Hong met at the Cannes Film Festival, whereupon filming commenced on “Claire’s Camera” (2017) before the annual event had time to roll up the carpets and close its doors.South Korea and France aren’t far apart, it seems, when you’re a player in the international film world. The actress and the director met again for a Hong retrospective at Paris and, what the hell, why not make another picture? Within the span of a few months, Ms. Huppert had jetted to Seoul and commenced on “A Traveler’s Needs.” Working with Mr. Hong, she subsequently said, “makes me reflect profoundly on the meaning of cinema.” Good for Ms. Huppert: She’s a workhorse deeply involved in her craft. Mr. Hong — well, he can’t not make movies. But what about the rest of us? That is to say, what about outside observers eager for an evening’s respite in the hopes of being entertained and, perhaps, moved to “reflect profoundly” on the qualities being proffered?Among his recent efforts, Mr. Hong’s “The Novelist’s Film” (2022) proved diverting and “In Front of Your Face” (also 2022) was more than that. This time around, he’s crafted a movie that is typical in its miniaturist scope and compositional strategies, but, on the whole, less incisive than abstruse. Bereft of an overriding structure — never a strong suit of Mr. Hong’s — “A Traveler’s Needs” isn’t quite the sum of its meandering aperçus.Ms. Huppert is Iris, a 70-something French woman with a colorful dress, an oversized hat, and a nervy attitude. How she came to be marooned at Seoul, we never find out. Iris is attempting to make a go of it by tutoring a select group of locals in French. Isabelle Huppert and Kim Seungyun in Hong Sangsoo’s ‘A Traveler’s Needs.’ Via Cinema GuildHer methodology is eccentric: a kind of psychological profiling followed by jotted notes on a series of index cards. Iris’s students include the young-and-winsome Isong (Kim Seungyun) and the older-and-jaundiced Wonju (Lee Hyeyoung, an actress of stern gifts who is a Hong regular). Both are aspiring musicians and each responds to Iris’s questions with the same set of answers. Mr. Hong is playing some kind of game here — metaphysical, perhaps; meta-, absolutely — but good luck discerning his purpose.Iris has been hunkering down in a spare room at the apartment of a college student and aspiring poet, Inguk (Ha Seonggu). How they met and what the nature of their relationship might be is ambiguous. When Inguk’s mother (Cho Yunhee) arrives unexpectedly, Iris hightails it out of the apartment and Inguk scrambles to explain Iris’s tenancy. Ms. Cho breaks the sober-sided tenor of Mr. Soo’s script by busting a gasket about her son’s life. Mom is already harboring enough angst about her parenting skills. Now there’s that damned French woman to fret about….This welcome moment brings focus and initiative to Mr. Hong’s elliptical, seemingly improvised reveries. Ms. Huppert told Variety that the director has “the least-improvised approach you could imagine. It is all written. It is very precise.” That may well be the case, but “A Traveler’s Needs” comes across as a movie made on the fly, with all the dead spaces, laggard transitions, and halting dialogue that implies.The redoubtable Ms. Huppert flounces along in a manner that is as appealing as you might imagine, but “A Traveler’s Needs” will convert few people to Mr. Hong’s vision. Should you be curious, try “In Front of Your Face” or, on the recommendation of a colleague, “Hill of Freedom” (2016). Still, if the digressive is your cup of makgeolli — that is to say, the milky alcoholic drink promiscuously imbibed by all in “A Traveler’s Needs” — you’ll find enough here by which to get tipsy.

Admirers of Isabelle Huppert and Hong Sangsoo May Celebrate That They’re Together Again, Though ‘A Traveler’s Needs’ Is Not Their Best

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