Nowhere to Lay My Eyes

Hong Sang-soo, by now the director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer, editor and sound recordist of his own films, is back as if he never left. Kim Min-hee plays a young experimental filmmaker who returns to visit her mother after years away, for a weekend that turns out to be cosy, awkward and painful in equal measure. Her mother would love nothing more than for her daughter to move closer to her, but that wish proves less straightforward than she had hoped. Beneath the everyday conversations lie loneliness, regret and a longing for connection. Hong swaps his familiar pianos and synths for a lo-fi, ominous post-punk guitar à la Slint, and occasionally lets Kim Min-hee narrate in voice-over. But as always, the subtle humour lies in the details: a coffee shop playing Satie, a monologue about a morbid burial ritual, and grilled prawns. It is Hong at his best: small in gesture, big in feeling and irresistibly human.