The reception was held on Monday 6 September at the Korean Cultural Centre near Trafalgar Square. Unlike what I expected there were not many people at the reception and I think the 24-hour tube strike which started that evening was somewhat accountable for the low turnout.
The Korean Cultural Centre was displaying some pictures and information about the director and his films. There were a couple of TV screens showing scenes from his films. Most impressively, there was a wall dedicated to his works in the basement where the centre’s library is situated. The wall was covered with his film posters along with the depiction of a pig’s bottom – a very cute reference to his debut work and the director’s autograph.
The reception itself seemed rather uneventful in general. There was someone from Independent Cinema Office who spoke a little bit about Hong Sangsoo and his first UK retrospective. When introduced, our man Hong Sangsoo himself only spoke briefly to thank everyone for the invitation and welcome.
Most of the time the director spent his time outside smoking and speaking on the phone. I felt rather sorry for him as it looked like he wasn’t comfortable being there. I thought the evening was going to end like this. We were having drinks and food while he was spending time away from us. However, we were encouraged to ask him any questions we would like to ask. When he came back in, he happened to come and sit next to us. To my surprise, he remembered seeing us at the BFI Southbank even mentioning my little brother. So we chatted for a little while, I mean mainly Rob with him.
During our private conversation, Mr. Hong said that Rob reminded him of a famous American actor. Even before he said the name of the actor, we knew it was Paul Newman. Believe it or not, quite a number of people (most of them happened to be Koreans) have already said the very same thing to him. Looking at the picture below, you may not agree with them, but it’s 100% true and it became one of our little jokes. Now that a prominent film director had approved it, we felt quite safe to talk about it. It certainly was the highlight of our evening, which made my lovely husband a very happy man and Mr. Hong Sangsoo his favourite Korean film director.
