Intentionally shot out of focus, Hong’s impressionistic and ‘painterly’ new work about an actor-turned-director in search of an idea to shoot a short film doesn’t always work, but its meta-filmic final act is sublime.

Some may feel Hong’s doing something different here—it’s more self-introspective and structurally liminal, but also slower and more meandering than usual as a film director brings his daughter to visit an old friend who might offer her career advice.

A more melancholic piece than some of Hong’s breezier offerings as he explores fictive ideals and sad realities through the idea of cinema as a mirror image.