Donghwa and Kim have been dating for 3 years. Like many young couples of that age, they reach a point where things have to get serious and meeting your partner’s parents (or your potential in-laws for when you tie the knot) becomes the next stage of the relationship. Donghwa stands there by the side of the road with Kim, observing her parents’ house. He takes a while to make the decision, suggesting that he’ll just drop her off at the driveway and head out – no harm no foul. Little does he know that he’s about to meet her father right there, sparking a chain reaction of slightly awkward circumstances as Donghwa tries to get to know her family, and vice versa.
The Meet the Parents comparisons are certainly apt in some regard, although there’s something more natural about Donghwa’s naivety and insecurities in contrast to Greg Focker’s friction with her girlfriend’s father from the get-go. Donghwa at first gets along with her father and mother despite the awkward introduction, but the true sign of trouble pops up once her sister comes into frame. Someone who in many ways is dealing with her own issues – she may be unemployed, she’s holed up at her parent’s home dealing with something mental health related, but at least we (and her family) know that from the get-go. For Donghwa, however, there are plenty of reasons to think that he has something he is hiding. If he has money trouble, why doesn’t he ask his famous attorney father for some? Why exactly did he choose that beat up old car? How does he get by? And most importantly, is he that good of a poet?
It all culminates in a fantastic dinner scene – a very typical Hong Sang-soo trademark – whereby tensions slowly boil to a tipping point. The family – especially the sister – keep on poking at these same questions about Donghwa’s background and his own character. We find out that his poetry isn’t very good at all, and his idealism isn’t a very applicable way of living life at all. He may think it’s reasonable to become independent without any help from his family and just barely make enough money to get by and be OK, but shouldn’t we aspire to do more than that with our lives? Is self-sufficiency really the end-goal? And in a world where we see very few poets get to earn a living, if his poetry isn’t any good, what then? Given that his girlfriend’s mother is a poet herself who has had some success in that field, I’d say that is where Donghwa really blew his opportunity to make his case. I’m also reminded a bit of another film that came out the same year – Simon Mesa Soto’s A Poet, about a similarly middle-aged man whose aspirations of becoming a poet are not in line with the reality of how it really is.
Eventually it all coalesces into an ending that is about expected – he no longer can live up to the ideal that his family and even his girlfriend expects of him. He runs away, and in a final act of karma his old car (that seemed perfectly fine at the beginning as her father test drives it) breaks down in the middle of the road. This is one of Hong’s most linear narratives as far as his films are concerned, plus he continues to resort to some of his usual trademarks – the lo-fi digital camcorder aesthetic, characters eating together at a table where they engage in very intimate dialogue, plus a lot of alcohol. But the results are never less than fascinating. He packs tons of interesting details within these characters and their interactions that say a lot about who they are – and perhaps within these details we may see a little bit of ourselves too.