Hong made his feature film debut just as South Korean cinema began to occupy a more prominent place internationally in the 1990s. But while many of the most celebrated films were either national epics, period pieces, political looks at South Korea’s recent history or genre blockbusters, The Day a Pig Fell Into the Well offered a tale of urban anomie more reminiscent of the Taiwan or Hong Kong new waves of the previous decade. Hong has said that the screenplay began when he assigned four students to write a short script based on a day in the life of a character of their choice; Hong then took these four scripts and wove them together, with a separate chapter for each of the film’s characters. The resulting tale of infidelity and unrequited love in contemporary Seoul is one of Hong’s most austere, bracing and arguably richest in social detail. – DP