• The Hollywood Reporter on LinkedIn
  • Follow THR on Pinterest

The Day He Arrives: Cannes 2011 Review

After Hong Sangsoo's twelfth film, one wonders if there is more for the audience than the self-satisfaction of getting an in-joke or a charade.

Cannes – Hong Sangsoo’s oeuvre is becoming as self-reflexive and cyclical as the serpent that swallows its own tail. When not making films about filmmakers making films (such as Oki’s Movie), he is making films about filmmakers who cannot make films (Women on the Beach, Like You Know It All). The Day He Arrives belongs to the latter category. Thankfully, the film does not dwell on creative blocks or hurt male pride, and only serves as an amusing itinerary of dining, drinking and sexual dalliance that beguilingly plays with narrative time.