The trailer and poster for Hong Sang Soo’s upcoming film “Ha ha ha” has arrived online. The South Korean director’s second film shot in 2009 (the first, “Like You Know It All,” toured some festivals but still has not received a US release) will continue his interest in the relationship of people and…. sex. Here is the synopsis from Han Cinema, though we’ve corrected some of the grammar issues:
This movie follows Moonkyeong acted by Kim Sang-kyeong who decides to move to Canada. He meets Joongsik acted by Yoo Joon-sang. The two find out that the were in a trip together and share their memories. Moonkyeong wants to be a movie director and meets a tour guide Seongok acted by Moon So-ri who wants to live a new life in Korea.
The movie critic Joongsik acted by Yoo is married but has another girlfriend and the two are in a summer vacation together. This film is set in different places that makes it seem like this movie has two stories.
Like most Hong Sang Soo films (especially the past few), it has two stories with different viewpoints and will deal with extra marital relations and follow characters working in the film business. As for actors, this isn’t the first Kim Sang-kyeong and Hong Sang Soo collaboration, as he appeared in “On the Occasion of Remembering the Turning Gate” and “Tale of Cinema,” but he might most be remembered as playing detective in the fantastic Bong Joon Ho thriller-mystery “Memories of a Murder.” Another gem lies in the casting of Moon So-ri, who fantastically played the palsy struck Gong-Ju in “Oasis.”
Hong has been making many quick, cheap films as of late, with the budget of “Like You Know it All” being a brisk $100k with actors not receiving any specified salary. However, as stated above, the film came and went, premiering at the 2009 Cannes Festival’s Director’s Fortnight, and leaving without a U.S. distributor. So what does that mean for the very promising sounding “Hahaha”? It’s unclear. The film is slated to appear at Cannes 2010, which gives some hope. IFC Films put out the film before “Like you Know it All,” titled “Night and Day,” which won Best Film at the 17th Buil Film Awards and was nominated for Best Screenplay at the 2008 Asia Pacific Screen Awards. Here’s hoping that it does get some sort of release, as the new film is among our most anticipated arthouse films of this year. The Korean trailer is below: