It’s been a long and trying battle for Seok-ho Shin, or better known as Seoung-mo, to reach where he is today. But now he believes it’s finally his time and he is more than ready to make his debut as a feature director. He, along with his friends who are also fellow actors, Sang-guk and Nam-hee decide to visit Jeju Island for a vacation but to also gather some ideas for filming. The only downside was that he lacked the proper vision for the project which resulted in him and his friends having to go for tours around the island, searching for pleasing landscapes that would fit well in the movie. As a result, this caused a hindrance in their movie making plans.
But with enough time lost, he was about to give up the thought of being able to make a movie altogether until he one day spotted a figure at the beach while he was wandering around. After some light chit-chat, Seok-ho ends up getting a basic idea for a story that he would like to get filmed.
Hong Sang-soo has always been working on encounters in his projects, which at first may appear to be an ordinary occurrence but which can also alter people’s lives. This was particularly the case in the projects such as ‘Introduction’, but even more in the case of ‘In Water’, which other reviewers tend to describe as his ‘most personal and poetic’ feature. The style of the film is jarring at first, but the dreamy, blurry view of “In Water”, which looks like a water painting of the three central characters, who are engaged in children’s games, is fascinating childish games and activities turn into a vision of mutual confidence where they talk to each other about their dreams of the future.
Something about this piece stands out, it feels as if it was unfinished, raw and direct. In water is a mirror of the decision making and capturing the insecurities of the artists, especially Seoung-mo who is an artist struggling to find his voice and a plot that interests him. The ramblings of the characters to struggling to standing out and then waking up with hangovers feels very real in the plot of people trying to find their place through exploring the relevance in existing mediums of art, in this case film.
What is the relevance of art, what is the point in this new age of technology? water seeks to answer that. It is a highly philosophical movie that explores the struggles of main characters and showcases their insecurities through film robustly making it surreal and heartfelt.
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