A Phenomenology of the Contemporary Quotidian Korean World: Within/without Hong’s Early films, Turning Gate (2002) and Woman on the Beach (2006)

Korean filmmaker Sangsoo Hong is known for his idiosyncratic aestheticism. His debut feature, The Day a Pig Fell into the Well (1996), made a public splash particularly because of its unique realist cinematography and non-linear narrative. As many critics have noted, Hong developed his trademark style early on, taking form in “a close description of the quotidian world,” a style marked by his unusual cinematography, which includes slow camera movements, long takes, and ample use of off-screen spaces. Despite variations across his work, Hong’s subsequent films continued the cinematic scrutiny of the quotidian. Still within his first decade of filmmaking, two of Hong’s earlier follow-ups to The Day a Pig Fell into the Well, Turning Gate (2003) and Women on the Beach (2006), perhaps best showcase Hong’s unique aestheticism. These later films were shot with only brief lines of often-improvised dialogue. Furthermore, Hong’s films, as they avoid dramaturgy while repeating images taken from daily life, appear to show viewers the physical details of life, constructing what might be called a phenomenology of the quotidian. Based on these observations, this paper examines the cinematic and ontological meanings of ‘repetition’ in Hong’s films and filmmaking styles. In particular, I explore two of Hong’s early films, Turning Gate and Woman on the Beach, while referring to other works that shed light on my thesis. In the attempt to interpret the ontological meaning of ‘repetition’ embedded in Hong’s films, I rely on phenomenological understandings about life, including the Deleuzian conceptions of “signs,” “repetition,” “pure