WALK UP

Korean miniaturist Hong Sang-soo serves up his signature blend of awkward meetings, table talk and enthusiastic drinking, all shot in the crisp black-and-white he favours in this complex portrait of an apartment building. Film director Byung-soo (Kwon Hae Hyo) calls in on an old acquaintance, Ms Kim (Lee Hye-young), who lives on one floor of her building and rents out the other levels. Over bottles of wine, Ms Kim portrays herself as a benevolent house mother. But in a series of narrative jumps, Byong-soo moves in first with the owner of the restaurant on the second floor, Sunhee (Song Seon-mi), then with another woman on the top floor, while Ms Kim proves to be a dragon landlady. Time moves back and forth as we go up and downstairs, catching conversations and glimpses of strange, possibly imaginary spaces. Hong is legendarily prolific, and this is one of his richest, albeit most perplexing, offerings yet. .