Winter s Night, Gyeo wul ba me, 겨울밤에 (2018) dir. Jang Woo jin

A middleaged couple visit a temple, where they had spent their first night together thirty years previously. On their way back, the woman realises she has likely left her phone there and insists on recovering it. This begins the winters night, one plunged in the shared, or separate, past of what forms the heart of a couple. At the beginning of the film, the subjects triviality is conveyed by a rather naturalistic treatment, but this only serves to subsequently produce a stronger twist and gently shift the film towards a starker viewpoint that reveals the underpinnings of loves discourse, and its memory. The subtle undramatic acting intentionally clouds the rules of the sentimental game, never far from breaking the ice. Bodies, emotions and memories, outside the traditional patterns of attraction and repulsion, are now on an equal footing on the threshold of this winter templeturnedstage.