The first of two films released by Hong in 2010, Hahaha won first prize in the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival, over films by the likes of Jean-Luc Godard and Jia Zhangke. (The jury president was Claire Denis, an avowed Hong fan.) Two friends meet over drinks and recount stories of their separate visits to the same beach town and the amorous adventures enjoyed there. The spectator realizes (even if the friends don’t) that the stories overlap and intersect. Beneath the film’s gently summery comedy (its title is a pun: Hahaha is Summersummersummer in Korean), Hong is up to some serious play with point of view in narrative and the way that an unknowing storyteller can reveal more of himself than he thinks. – DP