The Day She Returns follows actress Bae Jeongsu (Song Sunmi), who, having stepped back from acting after marriage and a subsequent divorce, returns to the profession with a role in an independent film. As the film’s release approaches, she takes part in a series of press interviews.

A subtle meditation on memory and performance, Hong Sangsoo’s latest film unfolds through a series of increasingly intimate conversations, as he continues his exploration of the boundaries between lived experience and artistic creation.

The Garden Cinema View:

Hong Sangsoo’s latest provides a particularly distilled (although surprisingly sober) essence of his signature style. Regular viewers will be entirely used the Hong’s penchant for structural repetition, revision, thematic mirrors, and blending identities.

The Day She Returns (the title itself alluding to 2011’s The Day He Arrives) has a setup that naturally plays into these motifs: a middle-aged actress on a small press junket giving three similar interviews to three similar young female journalists. As ever with Hong, what seems simplistic and restrained gives way surprising complexity. As these conversations play out, so does our sense of grounding begin to shift. And whilst the boundary between reality and performance blurs, a powerful sense of a woman reclaiming her life and belief in herself begins to emerge. Yet another small miracle from this most singular of filmmakers.  

Cast:
Song Seon-mi, Cho Yun-hee, Park Mi-so, Kim Sun-jin