There’s Nothing ‘In Your Face’ About Hong Sangsoo’s ‘In Front of Your Face’

Whatever else one can say about it, “In Front of Your Face,” the latest effort from South Korean director Hong Sangsoo, contains one of the most convincing depictions of drunkenness put to screen.Lee Hyeyoung plays Sangok, a veteran actress who hasn’t plied her craft in many years. She’s having dinner with film director Jaewon (Kwon Haehyo), and an alarming amount of liquor is being imbibed. Their conversation is halting and elliptical; inebriation brings a level of familiarity to its false starts and evasive maneuvers. Jaewon gets up the gumption to ask Sangok to star in his new film. Sangok asks Jaewon if his interest in her is more than professional.This tête-à-tête, which times in at around 30 minutes, serves as the centerpiece of “In Front of Your Face,” and it is performed with devastating subtlety. Ms. Hyeyoung and Mr. Haehyo embody the woozy liberation and feverish momentum that can accrue from having had a few too many, and they do so without overplaying their hands. The focus is on two people who, as each bottle empties, reveal more of themselves than is prudent. Mr. Sangsoo has cast his film well.That is a must, given the nature of his filmmaking. You want cinematic pyrotechnics? Go elsewhere. When the camera moves in this film — that is to say, if the camera moves — it does so almost surreptitiously, zooming out or changing vistas with deliberation. The same goes for the soundtrack: Music is sparingly applied. Ambient sound — the rush of traffic, say, or the murmur of a conversation taking place nearby — takes precedence. “Try not to make noise as you enter the theater,” the attendant warned movie-goers arriving late for the afternoon show, “this is a very quiet film.”Inasmuch as there is a plot, “In Front of Your Face” concentrates on character rather than resolution, on situations that are often untenable, mostly awkward, and invariably revealing. The ending, such as it is, isn’t a narrative summum, but a confirmation, albeit hesitantly stated, of insight and acceptance.The film begins with Sangok returning to Seoul after having lived in the United States for an unspecified amount of time. We first encounter her at the apartment of her long-estranged sister, Jeongok (a bristly Cho Yunhee). Waking up on the sofa, Sangok is pensive and begins to knead her abdomen and legs — the first indication that all is not well. Through voiceover we intuit an embrace of religiosity. Sangok’s thoughts are cleanly stated: “Everything I see before me is grace.”This is a charitable observation given the fractious back-and-forth Sangok has with Jeongok, not to mention the on-the-fly meeting with her nephew (the endearingly gawky Shin Seokho), and the drunken casting call mentioned earlier. Does Mr. Sangsoo encourage his actors to improvise? There’s a naturalness to the dialogue and elocution that lends a notable intimacy to the proceedings. With its reliance on confrontation, discomfort, and dramatic instinct, “In Front of Your Face” is reminiscent, in a roundabout way, of “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”Ms. Hyeyoung brings a dignified cast to the role of Sangok, a character not unlike herself: a former star who hasn’t made many films in recent decades. Her comeback here — if that is, in fact, what we can call this remarkably unassuming picture — is not only confirmation of innate talent, but of Mr. Sangsoo’s savvy as a showman. Yet don’t mistake what might seem a gimmicky bit of casting as the whole of “In Front of Your Face.” It succeeds, rather brilliantly, as a meditation on mortality whose scrupulousness is worthy of Chekhov, Bergman, and Ozu. This achievement is, to put it mildly, rare, and it makes for a most welcome film.

There’s Nothing ‘In Your Face’ About Hong Sangsoo’s ‘In Front of Your Face’

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