Hong Sang-soo - Saenghwalui balgyeon ('Turning Gate') (2002)

Kyung-Soo (Kim Sang-Kyung) is an actor, but his last movie was a failure and he has just missed out on a new role. Disappointed and disgusted, he takes a trip to visit a friend and meets two very different women, Myung-Suk (Ye Ji-Won) and Sun-Young (Chu Sang-Mi). YA Ent.




Hong San-soo's comic rendezvous Turning Gate is built on a series of repetitions that mirror the South Korean director's fascination with reincarnation. Out-of-work actor Gyung-soo (Kim Sang-kyung) leaves Seoul to visit his friend Seong-wu (Kim Hak-sun) in the country, and it is there that Gyung-soo learns of the Turning Gate myth: A young princess scorns the love of a snake, the reincarnation of a commoner killed by her father. Oblivious to Seong-wu's affections for Myung-sook (Yeh Ji-won), the indecisive Gyung-soo embarks on a heated affair with the sexy dancer, and when he rejects her love, the actor unknowingly begins to live out the legend of the Turning Gate. Haunted by regret, he wraps himself around a married woman, Sun-young (Chu Sang-mi), familiar with his stage performances. Hong San-soo's use of repetition (not one but two kisses to break the ice; the regurgitation of dime-store mantra; and Myung-sook's various dances that end on the same beat) evokes a karmic connection between a secular world and a bygone spiritual one. When Gyung-soo recognizes Sun-young from his past, he declares his undying love not for her but for the memory of Myung-sook. Tragically, this realization cripples his manhood—he suggests suicide and she thinks he's crazy. This playful yet bittersweet ode to missed opportunities and second chances acknowledges the power of myth for those in a constant state of becoming. Slant




This mature fourth film from Korean director Hong Sang-Soo ("The Power of Kangwon Province," "Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors") analyzes the emotional life of a listless young man. Hong keeps his usual distance from his characters, but the sheer intensity of his scrutiny allows the viewers to travel to their inner depths. It's a deeply thought-out, uncompromising film that brings a novelistic approach to the description of the inner life of its subject. With such earlier films as "The Day the Pig Fell Into the Well" and "Kangwon," Hong had fun playing with elliptical structures. "Turning Gate" is less experimental, dividing pretty much into two halves – one for each of the male character's female obsessions. The story starts with the somewhat aimless actor Kyung-Soo (Kim Sang-Kyung) feeling the brunt of a boxoffice flop. Rejected from his next project, he hangs out with a dance instructor with whom he considers starting a relationship. The dancer harshly chooses his friend instead. Depressed by the rejection, he meets pretty Sun-Young (Chu Sang-Mi) on a train and instantly falls for her, alighting in her hometown to pursue her. HW Reporter




Plotting, while careful, is much less important than characterization, which is usually expressed physically rather than verbally. The camera (by Choi Young-Taek) stays still for much of the time, allowing Hong to pay thorough attention to telling the story with looks, gestures and movement with the frame. This works nicely because the story demands that characters react quietly to a mounting number of small pressures; there are no big dramatic scenes. The title comes from a Korean legend about a commoner whose love for a princess had him turned into a snake. He pursued his love as a reptile but gave up at a monastery gate that became known as the Turning Gate. Hong incorporates this legend into his modern-day tale but is never constrained by it. Taking his characters into more complex psychological territory than mythological archetypes, he exhibits a commanding control of this demanding material. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/search/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1760105




This film is about the quest of love of a young man. It is extremely realistic, especially in the description of a self-cantered central character who seems always a little surprised at what is happening to him. The film is NOT a romantic comedy. It is not even a comedy, or a drama, or whatever category you usually put movies in. It is a transposition of life, with all its ambiguities, its unaccomplished desires, its eternal quests. The direction is minimalist but effective. The acting is sublime. If you are not worried to watch a movie which shows things that might be happening to you, go and see it. (–http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0313550/ )




From the Korean director of The Power of Kangwon Province and Virgin Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors, On The Occasion of Remembering The Turning Gate is another deceptively straightforward examination of the mechanics of relationships with the associated themes of loneliness and inability to communicate that Hong Sang-soo does so well. Kim Kyungsoo is an out of work actor. He has had some success on the screen but is better known for stage work. After he is dropped from a new film project, his life becomes a bit aimless and he leaves Seoul to visit a friend Sungwoo, in Chuncheon. On a boat trip on Lake Soyang, he is told the legend of a man who has been turned into a snake, but continues his pursuit of a princess and winds himself around her. The princess escapes into a temple and the snake is caught in a rainstorm and turns away at the place that is now called the Turning Gate. Kyungsoo is an unusual character to have as a lead in a film, as he doesn t seem to have much character or personality. At least not when off the stage. He is not very eloquent and his character is revealed by his clumsy attempts at communication and his awkwardness in social situations. He is considered a good actor by women he meets, who are initially attracted to him presumably because of his looks and modest fame, but he is not regarded highly by other people in his profession. Women are particularly unfathomable to him. He is unable to be the person Myungsuk wants him to be and escapes from Chuncheon when her attentions become too much for him. Travelling back to Seoul on the train he meets Sunyoung, and tries to be the person Myungsuk wanted him to be, but Sunyoung has a different image of him based on an event in their childhood. The person Kyungsoo wants to be for her is at odds with this preconceived image Sunyoung has created in her mind and trying to wrap himself into her life, Kyungsoo soon finds himself at his own Turning Gate.( –http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=3676 )