Hong Sang-soo’s sardonic romantic comedy teases confusion and bountiful amusement out of doppelgängers who may not be doppelgängers and lapses in memory that may or may not be genuine.
Another delightfully charming comedy from the Korean master whose lightness of touch never belies the emotional depth lurking beneath the surface.
Screened as part of NZIFF 2017
Yourself and Yours 2016
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Korea’s prolific, continually inventive satirist of romantic deception had four new films for us to choose from for this year’s NZIFF. The oldest – dating from late 2016 – pivots on a young woman who, when backed into a corner, claims not to be herself at all, but her twin. Or so it appears.
“In Yourself and Yours, Min-jung (Lee You-young), walks out on boyfriend Young-soo (Kim Joo-hyuck) upon feeling unduly attacked by him after he hears secondhand news of her soju-soaked misadventures around town, which she denies. Soon enough, Min-jung is being approached by a series of other men, to whom she denies that she is Min-jung at all…
Not allowed to find out whether Min-jung really is a twin, the viewer, like the film’s increasingly amusing chain of befuddled men, is left to wonder exactly what’s going on. Of course, as always with Hong (and all good art), the what is less important than the why, and Yourself and Yours is slowly revealed as another nimble investigation into the communication barriers men and women often erect between each other. It’s alternately caustic and sweet, leading to one of Hong’s most hopeful conclusions.” — Michael Koresky, Film Comment