Our Sunhi

Lacks some of the surprising emotional force of his "Nobody's Daughter Haewon", but nevertheless delights as it orchestrates the seriocomic ping-ponging of a canny young woman and her three equally hapless suitors

Compared to much of the filmmaker's recent output, such as the Cannes-selected Isabelle Huppert vehicle In Another Country, this is a pretty minor entry; the digitally shot cinematic equivalent of a fluidly drawn, customary doodle.

As usual with Hong, his subjects are stuck in a limbo of confusion that feels both strangely distant and, for the same reasons, true to life.

Not only is Our Sunhi pure pleasure through all its brisk running time, it is also a candid picture of male-female dynamics when one tries to upstage the other, in vain.

A past of repressed feelings and bad trysts is summoned, but the conversations between Sunhi and her men seem to pivot more on questions of a sustainable career in filmmaking.

The work is assured and the effervescence is deceptive - the movie has deep consideration going on underneath.

A minor effort from Hong, but the core of his overriding concerns remains potent.

Since neither the plot nor any of the characters are more than lightweight caricatures and as the long talkathons lack the wit of the aforementioned Rohmer, they inevitably tend to wear out their welcome long before Hong Sangsoo is done with them.