Oki (Jung Yumi) walks the fine line between fiction and reality in OKI’S MOVIE
OKI’S MOVIE (OK-HUI-UI YEONGHWA) (Hong Sang-soo, 2010)
Museum of the Moving Image
35th Ave. at 36th St., Astoria
Friday, March 23, free with museum admission, 7:00
718-777-6800
www.movingimage.us
In works such as Like You Know It All, Woman on the Beach Tale of Cinema, and Woman Is the Future of Man, Korean director Hong Sang-soo has explored the nature of his craft, using the creative process of filmmaking as a setting for his relationship-driven dramas. He examines the theme again in Oki’s Movie, a beautifully told tale told in four sections built around film professor Song (Moon Sung-keun) and students Jingu (Lee Sun-kyun) and Oki (Jung Yumi). Each chapter — “A Day for Chanting,” “King of Kiss,” “After the Snowstorm,” and “Oki’s Movie” — features a different point of view with a different narrator while walking the fine line between fiction and nonfiction. As in Tale of Cinema, certain parts are films within the film, shorts made by the characters for their class. Hong keeps viewers guessing what’s real as Oki balances a possible love triangle between her, Jingu, and Song; the final segment is a poetic masterpiece that brings everything together. Oki’s Movie is screening March 23 at 7:00, concluding the Museum of the Moving Image’s week-long tribute to Hong; the film will have its official U.S. theatrical release April 16-22 at the Maysles Cinema, the Harlem institution devoted to documentaries.