Writer, film curator, and leading Hong Sang-soo scholar Dennis Lim brings a personal favorite from Hong’s oeuvre–– 2022’s The Novelist’s Film–– to Deep Cut. As the DC trio and their esteemed guest enjoy the luxuriate in Hong’s complex, joyous depiction of collaborating artists-in-exile, Dennis shares his background with Hong, this film’s shape, and the model Hong sets for young, independent filmmakers.

Film your novel at our FREE patreon, discord server, and our socials @ www.deepcutpod.com

Timestamps:

00:00 Intro

02:08 Introducing guest

03:47 Lim's background with Hong

11:15 DC trio's current thoughts on Hong

15:41 Why the Novelist's Film / general reactions

26:13 Hong's regular actors

28:04 Formal discussion

38:33 Shapes

41:16 Lee Hye-young

46:25 Ha song-guk

47:06 Waste, exile, potential

50:19 Hong's business, life, and art model (good for young filmmakers)

55:53 Outro

In this episode, we get into Ben’s favorite Hong film of all time, Yourself and Yours. If On The Beach At Night Alone is Hong’s first reflection on the scandalized reception to the reveal of his relationship with Kim Min-hee, Ben shares the theory that Yourself and Yours is secretly the one about its beginning.

In our discussion, we try to pin down Minjung’s slippery personas, pick apart the film’s dream sequences, define the qualities of Hong’s surrealist and yet mundane approach, and ask, what does it take to be a Hong film that believes in love?

Links:

Yourself and Yours segmentation

Inexplicable doppelganger list

Hong Sang-soo Notarized: Yourself and Yours

Break a leg at our FREE patreon, discord server, and our socials @ www.deepcutpod.com

Timestamps:

00:00 Intro

02:00 Film Intro

04:05 General reactions

09:12 AFA Post screening discussion

11:45 Film context

15:20 Structure / segmentation

20:28 Doppelgangers and dreams

26:06 Perception of Mnjung

31:09 The ending

33:47 Context in Hong’s career

36:25 Ben’s favorite scene

40:15 Parallel characters and Hong-isms

46:00 Reflection on discussion

53:45 Outro

What do Inception, Tim Robinson, Luis Buñuel, Woody Allen, and Chantal Akerman have in common? They all get compared to Hong Sang-soo’s On the Beach at Night Alone in this episode of Deep Cut! Listen on as we unpack the movie that’s loosely about Hong’s and Kim Min-hee’s career-changing relationship, digest more awkward dinner scenes, and discuss the merits of going to the beach in the winter.

Links:

Scold your friends for being inauthentic at our FREE patreon, discord server, and our socials @ www.deepcutpod.com

Timestamps:

00:00 Intro

02:31 General reactions

08:00 Context / Hong+Kim relationship

14:32 SG public opinion survey

18:04 Hong Sang-soo's 'Inception'

20:08 Hong Sang-soo / Tim Robinson

21:43 Hong / Buñuel

25:45 Hong not planning era

27:17 Ryan Swen Notarized and dinner scene

33:16 What to do with this movie?

38:13 Hong's Chantal Akerman

41:10 Hong as Woody Allen 😬

43:35 Shape of this film

46:43 Outro

Is traveling through Europe too expensive? Then hop aboard a train with the Deep Cut trio and Chantal Akerman for another sensitive, lightly autobiographical story of a surrogate character experiencing ennui and/or despair. Along the road trip, there’s sex, ‘70s outfits, and… windows. Ultimately, we struggle to decide: how well can we know Akerman through her work (or, for that matter, anyone)?

Meet Ben, Wilson, and Eli (kinda) at our FREE patreon, discord server, and our socials @ www.deepcutpod.com

Timestamps:

00:00 Intro

03:46 Summary

04:27 General reactions

11:33 Jeanne Dielman vs The Meetings of Anna

16:39 Mom and Akerman herself

22:37 Plot sequence and Akerman’s subjectivity

30:32 Other Akerman films

34:20 Akerman and loneliness

37:39 Ending

40:12 Sex

43:29 Singing

We are joined by none other than friend of the pod and the artist behind all of our DC covers, Justina Yam! Justina comes on the podcast to take us back to the works of Chantal Akerman, with her first feature Je Tu Il Elle. Justina talks about her personal connection to Akerman’s films, and discusses how she continues to play with time in her filmography. Wilson and Eli talk about expressions through body language and narration, and Ben has a theory about Je Tu Il Elle being a non-linear film.

Do you want DC merch? Tell us on the Discord!

Links:

Justina’s Instagram

Justina’s recent photojournalism project: 風流 (Feng Liu)

Ira Sachs on Je Tu Il Elle

Eat sugar at our FREE patreon, discord server, and our socials @ www.deepcutpod.com

Timestamps:

00:00:00 Intro

00:01:44 Introducing Justina Yam

00:07:09 Je tu il elle introduction

00:08:04 General thoughts on Je Tu Il Elle from Justina and Wilson

00:13:21 General context of the film

00:15:27 General reactions from Ben and Eli

00:18:09 Sugar? Long Takes?

00:20:56 Feminism and Akerman

00:23:30 The three act structure

00:27:44 Blocking and the body

00:34:06 Long takes

00:36:42 Sex scenes

00:41:43 Autobiographical nature of the film

00:47:16 Temporality

00:53:49 The ending and career context

00:58:49 Discomfort within Akerman’s cinema

01:04:03 Outro

Ben got a chance to interview director Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke for his film A Useful Ghost (2025) that played at the 36th Singapore International Film Festival, where it also won the Special Mention Prize for the Asian Feature Film Competition.

Learn about Boonbunchachoke’s creative process, how he developed the story, and his approach to filmmaking as a whole that tends towards artificiality, deadpan humour and an engagement with history.

Special thanks to the SGIFF team for helping us with securing an interview time/location, and to Momo Film Co, the film’s Singapore co-production team for helping to coordinate the interview.

Suck less at our FREE patreon, discord server, and our socials @ www.deepcutpod.com

Timestamps:

00:00 Intro

02:47 Reception

04:00 Queer readings

07:39 Developing story and themes

12:02 Political / historical references

13:24 History, memory, surveillance

18:19 Artificiality, worldbuilding, craft

25:36 Spoilers: Frame story

27:25 Spoilers: Ending

31:43 Other appliance candidates

33:42 Upcoming work

34:35 Outro

Another festival coverage episode? We’re back to back with Asian film festivals and Ben returns to Singapore to cover the hottest films from the festival circuit and the region for the 36th Singapore International Film Festival. Our film coverage spans the most hotly contested tickets (Silent Friend, Girl, Resurrection, Sentimental Value), cinema classics (Matador, Water, Bye Bye Love), and promising first features from the region (Amoeba, A Useful Ghost, Old Man and His Car)

This is a spicy and fun episode where Ben reflects honestly about his festival experience and Singapore’s cinema culture, as well as sharing his optimism with the concurrent ground-up efforts (The Daily, FFIGS) reinvigorating that culture. On top of all that, we also find the time to do a very special celebration in the middle of the episode.

Links:

Correspondence / The Daily

⁠Ben’s piece on the Cinephile Pass

FFIGS

Deepa Mehta Write-up

Luca Guadagnino video on costumes

Hilma af Klint: What Stands Behind the Flowers at MoMA

Madame Morible Wicked Witch meme

Interview with Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke (forthcoming!)

Correspond with us at our FREE patreon, discord server, and our socials @ www.deepcutpod.com

Timestamps:

00:00:00 Intro

00:03:15 Festival as a whole

00:08:45 Netflix acquisition of WB

00:11:51 Festival operations

00:20:33 Festival passes

00:24:15 Banned films

00:27:48 SGIFilmFeud

00:28:25 Correspondence / The Daily

00:30:56 FFIGS

00:34:40 Optimism

00:38:14 The films / Bye Bye Love (1974) dir. Fujisawa Isao

00:43:10 How Dare You? (2025) dir. Mipo O

00:46:14 Two Seasons, Two Strangers (2025) dir. Sho Miyake

00:48:29 Audience behaviour

00:51:25 Girl (2025) dir. Shu Qi

00:56:20 Resurrection (2025) dir. Bi Gan

01:02:25 Water (2005) dir. Deepa Mehta

01:07:02 A Celebration

01:09:00 Sentimental Value (2025) dir. Joachim Trier

01:11:25 Hamnet (2025) dir. Chloe Zhao

01:14:25 Late Fame (2025) dir. Kent Jones

01:18:07 Matador (1986) dir. Pedro Almodovar

01:21:20 Silent Friend (2025) dir. Ildikó Enyedi

01:27:00 SEA Shorts Programme

01:31:36 The Old Man and His Car (2025) dir. Michael Kam

01:36:50 Amoeba (2025) dir. Tan Siyou

01:43:10 A Useful Ghost (2025) dir. Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke

01:51:16 Wrapup

01:57:30 Bonus