WHAT DOES THAT NATURE SAY TO YOU Luminaries

“It’s rare for kids to turn out better than their parents” proclaims the middle-aged father at the center of prolific Korean auteur Hong Sang-soo’s latest film. Retaining his signature style and languid rhythm yet adopting a more wistful tone, Hong expands his frequent focus on friends and lovers to include the intricate dynamic between parents and their adult children. When Junhee brings her boyfriend Donghwa — an idealistic, 30-something broke poet, complete with a fledgling goatee — to her idyllic, hillside family home, he’s received politely by her parents but cautiously by Junhee’s older sister Neunghee, an unemployed boomerang daughter grappling with depression. Eventually and inevitably in Hong’s films, too much liquor is poured, and Donghwa’s respectful, ingratiating façade begins to crack when questioned about his own successful father. Marking a subtle but significant evolution in his body of work, this is among the director’s most mature and introspective works to date, offering a quietly profound meditation on both filial love and strife, and how generational expectations and economic realities shape the bonds that both divide and connect us. –Mimi Brody