A Pilgrimage to Cinema

When I read an initial review of the Korean film HOPE (2026) after its premiere at the Cannes International Film Festival as part of the Main Competition last May, I immediately got into thinking that Na Hong-jin could win the Best Director prize, following in the footsteps of fellow Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook (this year’s jury president, by the way) who won the prize for the Hitchcockian DECISION TO LEAVE four years ago. It would such be a welcome news, I thought, as Na Hong-jin is such a daring and engaging storyteller. He’s one of my favorite Korean filmmakers, as a matter of fact.  HOPE is just Na Hong-jin’s fourth feature, but each of his succeeding films turns out to be bolder and more ambitious than the previous one, like, say, the films of Paul Thomas Anderson. But then, the Cannes Best Director prize was eventually handed to a couple of other films. That is, THE BLACK BALL, directed by Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo, and FATHERLAND, directed by Pawel Pawlikowski (hi...

In cinema, a typical scenario of a young unrequited first love goes something like this: Two teeners develop tender feelings for each other for the first time; the challenge is that either one of them or both can’t say it out loud. If they do, there are some reservations. In that regard, the Dutch film JONGENS (𝘉𝘰𝘺𝘴, 2014), directed by Mischa Kamp, can be said to have a rather simple and familiar story. In this film, we have two aspiring teenage track-and-field athletes, Sieg (Gijs Blom) and Marc (Ko Zandvilet), who happen to meet during one of their trainings. Immediately, sparks fly between the two boys. Though each has a somewhat different way of approaching their budding tender feelings. Sieg is quiet and reserved, more inclined to keep in check a possible romance and to steal some glances instead from afar. While Marc is outgoing and expressive, more than willing to let the other boy know of his growing feelings. Of course, it won’t really require some second-guessing regardin...

Chinese filmmaker Bi Gan (only 36 years old) has directed three features thus far (or four, if we would include 2011's TIGER, which is somewhat considered a “lost” film), but each succeeding work appears to be bigger, more ambitious and more complex than the previous one. 2015's KAILI BLUES and 2018's LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT are spellbinding films in themselves, but both have been surpassed by 2025's RESURRECTION in terms of ambition, scope and formal daringness. It is something that you may not have seen before and something that you may not see again in a short while. Until perhaps the next Bi Gan film (it was a 7-year gap between LONG'S DAY JOURNEY INTO NIGHT and RESURRECTION). Awarded a special prize at the Cannes film festival last year, though deserving as well of the Palme d'Or (I said “as well,” because Jafar Panahi's IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT, which ultimately won the Palme d'Or, is such a great film), RESURRECTION is an ambitious, hypn...