the scene where he asks the students what kind of person they want to be in the future hit me like a mf.

the scene where he asks the students what kind of person they want to be in the future hit me like a mf.

No one does nothingness like Hong. It's not that I don't already see him as a genius, but rather that I will truly see his genius ten years from now. Each film is just another day, capturing all its glory and muted angst. So micro, but so universal. Maybe Bresson captured whatever or whoever god is through film, but I think Hong figured out how to capture the paradoxically, yet axiomatically transcendent banality of man through film. I recently watched a couple "well-regarded" action films and bouncing back into this clarifies the personal insult that type of manufactured superfluity elicits within me. I'm not really concerned these days with finding objective truth in film any more, especially when it comes to ratings or convincing others what's "right" or "wrong." All I know is what I feel and Hong makes me feel.

When Jeonim briefly disappears at the end of the film, and her uncle shouts for her, that's me. The world keeps shouting at me to come back, but I really just want to see the existential stream. She makes her art using her whole body. She feels existence in its entirety.

This movie is for those of us who prefer to sit by the stream.

No one does nothingness like Hong. It's not that I don't already see him as a genius, but rather that I will truly see his genius ten years from now. Each film is just another day, capturing all its glory and muted angst. So micro, but so universal. Maybe Bresson captured whatever or whoever god is through film, but I think Hong figured out how to capture the paradoxically, yet axiomatically transcendent banality of man through film. I recently watched a couple "well-regarded" action films and bouncing back into this clarifies the personal insult that type of manufactured superfluity elicits within me. I'm not really concerned these days with finding objective truth in film any more, especially when it comes to ratings or convincing others what's "right" or "wrong." All I know is what I feel and Hong makes me feel.

When Jeonim briefly disappears at the end of the film, and her uncle shouts for her, that's me. The world keeps shouting at me to come back, but I really just want to see the existential stream. She makes her art using her whole body. She feels existence in its entirety.

This movie is for those of us who prefer to sit by the stream.

I feel so good wtf.

I feel so good wtf.

i felt so seen by jeonim
(btw i want everyone's wardrobe)

i felt so seen by jeonim
(btw i want everyone's wardrobe)

For the first time in a long time, I struggled with concentrating on this one. With hardly any narrative structure, dense, dialogue heavy scenes and very little camera work/editing - for a long time it was a little bit impenetrable for me. For someone who adores that kinda of slow, meandering cinema, I’m really surprised I didn’t connect with By The Stream as much as I expected to. 

But there’s little glimpses of absolute genius what enveloped me. I love that sort cyclical, ambient nature of regret and consequence and how close those two feelings are living in us and how they’re bound to us forever. And the whole ‘Who do you want to be’ scene is an absolute gut wrenching piece of writing and acting. Fucking phenomenal.

Maybe I would get a lot more out of this on a rewatch, but I don’t think I’ll be rushing back to it any time soon.

For the first time in a long time, I struggled with concentrating on this one. With hardly any narrative structure, dense, dialogue heavy scenes and very little camera work/editing - for a long time it was a little bit impenetrable for me. For someone who adores that kinda of slow, meandering cinema, I’m really surprised I didn’t connect with By The Stream as much as I expected to. 

But there’s little glimpses of absolute genius what enveloped me. I love that sort cyclical, ambient nature of regret and consequence and how close those two feelings are living in us and how they’re bound to us forever. And the whole ‘Who do you want to be’ scene is an absolute gut wrenching piece of writing and acting. Fucking phenomenal.

Maybe I would get a lot more out of this on a rewatch, but I don’t think I’ll be rushing back to it any time soon.