Review of Walk Up / 탑, directed by Hong Sang-soo

There are always memories attached to certain objects for some people, and with me, it has been the movies. For example, I can remember when I saw certain movies, or who I saw them with. I have a really good memory when it comes to these kinds of things, if we’re being honest.

I remember the first time I saw a Hong Sang-soo movie. I was a freshman in college taking a 300 level Korean cinema course with a bunch of upperclassmen. It was my first semester, and I thought taking that class would take the edge off of missing Korea—I had just moved back from a high school study abroad experience there.

In the years that passed, I minored in film, became a professional film critic, and even started this blog. I’ve come to learn a lot about film, and even covered Hong’s releases at the New York Film Festival. It was right after I quit my job as a critic, as I’ll be moving to India to pursue a Fulbright, I watched Walk Up.

Here’s my review!

A filmmaker finds inspiration and love inside of an apartment building owned by a dear friend.

This is a classic Hong Sang-soo movie, and what I mean by that is it follows a similar formula as his other movies. Its main character is Byungsoo, who’s a film director. A lot of Hong’s protagonists are film directors just like he is.

In this movie, Byungsoo is going to a building with his daughter. She dreams of becoming an interior designer and working within the industry, and he wants to bring her to an old friend of his. Turns out his friend was working within the industry for several years now, and could probably give some advice to the daughter, Jeongsu.

So they head up and chat with the woman, who shows them around the building. She decides to show them around the building because it’s actually pretty nice. There’s a restaurant on the first floor and an opportunity to use the cooking spaces, and she even has an office in the basement.

This place is also a haven for artists, as it has an art studio at the very top floor. We then get extended scenes of them chatting and discussing art and life, which is also very typical for a Hong movie. Lots of philosophical connections between the mundane and the role of art in the characters’ lives.

The woman is the owner of this building, and she even wants Byeongsu to move into one of the units that’s currently empty. At one point, his daughter decides to get up and them more wine, which leaves the two old friends together alone in the room.

This is when the movie takes a shift, and it’s going to take another one when he gets up to take a phone call, playing a switch moment in time and place. This is honestly when I began comparing the movie more to his films like Right Now, Wrong Then and less like The Novelist’s Film.

Overall Thoughts

I would say I enjoyed this movie in a typical Hong fashion, but I didn’t love it. One of the films I like the most best from him is The Novelist’s Film, and I think it’s because I could personally begin connecting with the characters depicted in that movie.

I think the structure in this film is unique, but again I didn’t care for the plot enough. You either love or hate a Hong Sang-soo movie; I’ve found that there are very few people who fall strictly down the middle.

That said, he is a master filmmaker, and the technical elements are great. He certainly makes movies for people who love movies and the craft of getting one onto your screens beautifully.

Watch this if you’re interested in it!

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