On the Beach at Night Alone

Art imitates life in this quietly devastating masterpiece from Hong Sang-soo. Kim Minh-ee—in the role that won her the Silver Bear for best actress in Berlin—plays Young-hee, an actress reeling in the aftermath of an affair with a married film director. Young-hee visits Hamburg then returns to Korea, but as she meets with friends and has her fair share to drink, increasingly startling confessions emerge. No stranger to mining his own experience for his films, Hong, whose real-life affair with Kim stirred up a media frenzy in Korea, here confronts his personal life with a newfound emotional directness. With an incredibly raw and vulnerable performance from Kim at its center, On the Beach at Night Alone is one of the most dynamic collaborations between director and performer in contemporary cinema.