Tale of Cinema is an important film in Hong’s oeuvre, marking the debut of many elements now recognized as signatures of his distinct style: the active zoom shot, the setting in the world of filmmaking, and the theme of the anxiety of influence, an important elaboration of Hong’s overarching comedy of failure. The film breaks into two parts, an opening half depicting an obsessive love story among unhappy youth and set against a backdrop of intergenerational conflict. The second part shifts focus to someone who has been a spectator of the events of the first part and the way that he misapplies the lessons he thinks he’s learned from his voyeuristic experience to his own life. The interplay between the two halves reveals the rift that Hong often tries to reconcile in his films: the depiction of lived existence on the one hand, and the aesthetic experimentation with visual and narrative form on the other. – DP