The Day After

Prolific South Korean filmmaker Hong Sang-soo presents his new film, The Day After, in competition in Cannes, and it’s his third (and possibly not final) release of 2017. Once again he uses the most simple cinematic techniques to explore infidelity with yet another film about an unfaithful protagonist. It follows Bongwan (Kwon Haehyo), a book publisher who cheats on his wife Haejoo (Cho Yunhee) with his young assistant Changsook (Kim Saebyuk). As so often with Hong, the premise is less interesting than the director’s precise execution and presentation of the material, and the simple but brilliant script makes this an unpretentious, authentic moral tale, which is often very funny, if a bit slight.