Truly Dreadful Film

Such a frustrating disappointment

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

good back-story, and good acting

Noted Actor(s)Ham Chun-soo (Jae-Yeong Jeong) | Hee-Jung (Min-hee Kim)Characters & StorylineHam Chun-soo is a man of a certain age, not a senior citizen but not young. Been married since his 20s but is now alone in Suwon, his wife back in Seoul, and he comes across Hee-Jung. She is young, beautiful, and with him being a famous director, a potential womanizer as well, she allows him to be in her company. With that he tries to woo her and while the first time fails, so comes if the second time he may end up with a mistress.On The FenceI Had Hopes & It Seemed Like It Could Have Been InterestingLet's start off that this movie is 2 hours. As noted countless times, most movies probably would be fine with 70 minutes, very few make 90 minutes worth it, so two hours to me means that between the screenwriter, director, and/or the editor, someone's ego couldn't be tamed. With that said, Fences is over 2 hours and I loved that, 20th Century Women is a little shy of 2 hours and I loved that, and Blue is The Warmest Color is three hours and while there is no way in hell I would sit at home and watch a three hour movie, I did like that movie. So what happened?Well, the whole movie ends pretty much around the hour mark and then it starts over. At first, I was confused, thinking I was experiencing a technical issue. Low and behold, what happens is the movie plays all over again, but is edited so that Ham Chun-soo isn't exposed for being married and a few other things were changed.This, to me, seemed so weird and stupid. Now, if this was done like An Oversimplification of Her Beauty, where it added layers to the characters after restarting, or something similar, I could perhaps get behind the movie. However, with the movie just basically rewinding so Ham Chun-soo could have a favorable outcome with Hee- Jung, I was disappointed. If only because it seemed like a few scenes were changed and the rest were sliced in from the first hour you watched. So congrats to the editor for making it seamless, but it didn't make for the best story this odd choice.Overall: Negative (Skip It)While not a horrible movie at all, you may feel like you saw two different cuts of the same movie back to back. One is the cut the director wanted and then following that is the one which tested well with audiences or vice versa. With that, you get one hour of a run of the mill movie which isn't noteworthy and is barely worth renting. But then it repeats and tries to make Hee-Jung seem more interested in Ham, have him be more open about having a wife and leaves you unable to get into their romance because he has a wife. Much less, both of them are dull as bricks, as are their associates, so believe me when I say that, despite this being on some major indie website's list, leave it alone.

Maybe it's because I haven't seen any of Sang-soo's other films but Right Now, Wrong Then left me cold and unimpressed. I can see the appeal this film has but I personally found the film a tad annoying. It feels more like a South Korean remake of The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby that admittedly was more interesting than The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby. I was also surprised to see Lady Hideko here. Kim Min- Hee is one of few things that are great about the film, even if she wasn't as impressive as she was in The Handmaiden. If you like the director you might like Right Now, Wrong Then but I was overall just left cold with the film.

Right Now, Wrong Then is a film of two distinct halves. In 2 days of the life of a filmmaker, Ham Cheon-soo, in town a day early for a screening of his latest work at a local film festival. He meets a younger woman, Yoon Hee-Jeong, and immediately falls for her. She's an artist, and he views and comments on her work, then they go out to dinner where they drunkenly bear their souls. It results in an invitation to a friend's small party where a revelation embarrasses Ham to the point where they part ways on a sour note. He attends his film to a small crowd, conducts a hungover Q&A, and retires, walking away from the town for good. Roll title card "Right Now" rather than "Right Then." The film literally repeats from the beginning, erasing the first half. Like Groundhog Day but only a once-over, we get every scene again but from a slightly different wishful approach.This second time the couple are honest, unlike the first time where Ham tries too hard to impress and Yoon retreats. Again, they fall in love, but given Ham admits to already being married, their feelings are mutual and emotional without being sexual. He may embarrass himself once more at the aforementioned dinner, but it does not result in a cruel parting, instead drawing them closer. It's a quaint experiment given the relaxed tone. The first half on its own is not a movie, and neither is the second. They're co-dependent to give the narrative meaning, but it's far from cinematic in tone. It's a filmmaker's revisionism of what could have been a perfect evening had the characters acted suitably. It's honest, rather than romantic – though the chemistry still bubbles in the air – and it's utterly bittersweet, in a similar vein to Before Sunrise, but strictly not Before Sunset. It's my first film from Korean director Hong Sang-soo and ostensibly from his fans and critics, Right Now Wrong Then is firmly his style – including the Woody Allen-esque romance between an older creative similar to the director himself, and a pretty younger woman. The atmosphere is very modest with simple photography, though Sang-soo does punctuate some scenes with careful zooms. It's very easy-going filmmaking, and its concept makes the second half easier to watch because you know exactly where it's heading as it retraces steps while you have a sharp eye out for the subtle changes that make all the differences, but it doesn't beg you to keep an eye on every detail. Those differences aren't grandstanding though the narrative is clearly motivated by them. Sometimes a scene will repeat its approach entirely despite the previous scene being radically revised. It's trying to be very nuanced rather than having a 'sliding doors/butterfly effect' where causality makes the universe shift places. Instead, the outcome isn't much different but the overall feeling is utterly converted. It's all down to the performances of its two leads, Jeong Jae-Yeong and Kim Min-Hee, to create that tone with their chemistry, who were most likely shooting both halves back to back, location by location. In both halves, Ham is still a jerk with a kind of irritating laugh, but all the characters are deeply human even if Sang-soo doesn't peel back their layers every time. There's a big heart buried in its very slight execution. However, Right Now Wrong Then is not necessarily about how honesty is a better policy – though Ham's harsh analysis of Hee-Jeong's art in the second half remains a sting that takes a long time to settle – but it's about how it's possible to love again. In this case, love doesn't have to be a complete turbulous affair, but it can still be a fulfilling and life-affirming night if approached accordingly.8/10

This film won the Golden Leopard (Best Film award) at the 2015 Locarno Film Festival. By mistake, a film director arrives in a town a day early to attend a screening of one of his films. With time to kill, he strikes up a conversation with an aspiring painter who he meets in a temple and they spend the rest of the day together. Although he finds her attractive, she is considerably younger than him and neither of them are particularly outgoing. A bit like Sliding Doors or Kieslowski's Blind Chance, the film splits into two different versions of what happens over the next 24 hours but, unlike those two films, the outcome depends not so much on chance but on how the main character chooses to behave. Any further info would inevitably contain spoilers so let's just say that it reminded me of some of Erich Roemer's films and is a sort of moral tale. Whether or not you will like Right Now, Wrong Then will probably depend on what you think of the dialogue, which pretty much dominates (there is not much action and little in the way of visuals or soundtrack). In my view, it is almost a really good film but the script needed sharpening up, as my attention started wandering off more than once. Perhaps a bit more humour and a slightly faster pace would have helped, However, it is a thought-provoking film and I found it ultimately satisfying when it ended, which is why I give it 7/10.