The Power of Kangwon Province
Director: Hong Sang-Soo
Year Released: 1998
Rating: 2.0
Another Hong picture in two parts: the first has a young woman going on holiday with friends and having a brief, uncomfortable fling with a police officer, the second has a college professor also on holiday and eventually running into the young woman from the first part of the picture. It's been proven that it's possible to make a film about emotional disconnect without being disconnected (the usual names come to mind: Tsai Ming-Liang, Wong Kar-Wai, Kim Ki-Duk), but this picture is too studied and numb: there's only intellectual recognition of the situation (lovers torn apart) and constant (viewer) awareness of Hong's obsession with structure. I always thought Hou Hsaio-Hsien was alone in remaking himself picture after picture but appears as if he's in good company (and even Hou's been branching out more of late...).
