By Another Name

For those who follow the international film festival circuit, the hyper-productive and highly influential Hong Sang-soo seems to be everywhere. Everywhere one turns, there’s either a new film by the Korean cineaste, or a film which bears nearly each and every of his tropes. By Another Name is a prime example of the latter.

With its underwritten narrative, bifurcated structure, plain aesthetics, a filmmaking protagonist and emphasis on men behaving badly, indie cineaste Lee Jea-han’s third feature is a derivative, unengaging addition to Busan’s main competition. Compared to his first two features – the fish-out-of-water dramedy Sophie’s World (2021) and last year’s The Faces of Hwanhee, a portmanteau of four stories set in a close-knit community – By Another Name seems much smaller in budget and much more lightweight in scope. As it stands, it looks like a rushed job, a film devoid of the nuances of human interaction that made Lee’s first films so delightfully cute.

The first half of the film revolves around Jea-hyun (Moon In-hwan), a young but terminally ill director who wants to “make something real” before his impending demise. What that last masterpiece really is, we will never know; Lee only shows Jea-hyun wheedling his past associates, such as his kind-hearted producer Ji-young (Hwang Mi-young), to help him on this mad (or maddening) exercise.

Seemingly in robust health and alternating between self-aggrandisement and self-pity, Jea-hyun is a thinly sketched character, with Lee painting him and his motives in the broadest and most bombastic of brushstrokes. And the confusion continues after his death: bearing an on-screen title of “(Yet) Another Name”, the second chapter of the film sees Jea-hyun’s widow Su-jin (Hoelyn Jung) becoming obsessed with the project, her desperation leading her to ignore Ji-young’s warning and work with “a jerk” of an actor who looks and dresses the exact same way as her dead husband.

To speculate on what all this means is much ado about nothing. The only takeaway from Lee’s film, perhaps, is that cinema is something which can keep the sick from thinking about their sickness, and the bereaved from falling apart from grief. Well, at least that’s what happening on screen: off it, however, the bemused audience may think otherwise and call a minimalist film like this by another name.

Director, screenwriter: Lee Jea-han
Producer: Kim Su-min
Cast: Moon In-hwan, Hoelyn Jung, Hwang Mi-young
Cinematography: Kim Su-min
Editing: Mareummo Film
Music: Choi Yumsoon
Production companies: Mareummo Film
Venue: Busan Interational Film Festival (Competition)
In Korean
95 minutes