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Tale of Cinema
In the fourth title of the acclaimed DecadentEditions series, Dennis Lim explores the oeuvre of South Korean auteur Hong Sangsoo via his 2005 film. Forty minutes in, we realise we’ve been watching a film within the film. The ‘real’ characters leave the cinema and find themselves reenacting what they just saw, as a chance encounter invites a suicide pact. Is it life imitating art, or the other way around? Dennis Lim is a film curator, teacher, and writer. He is currently the Artistic Director of the New York Film Festival.
216 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2022
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June 23, 2025
“𝘏𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘧𝘧𝘪𝘤 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘪𝘤 𝘰𝘧 𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴: 𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘴𝘪𝘴, 𝘳𝘦𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘪𝘮. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘢 𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘮𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘷𝘦𝘥 𝘴𝘰 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘢𝘴 𝘥𝘦𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘦𝘧𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘥, 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮𝘴, 𝘭𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯 𝘸𝘢𝘪𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘨𝘶𝘪𝘴𝘦𝘴. 𝘈𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘪𝘭𝘮 𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘴, 𝘪𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘺 𝘣𝘦𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯.”
Lim takes on the nearly impossible task of speaking about a single Hong film. It’s not easy. Talking of one is talking of the others, and with references to other auteurs like Altman, Rohmer, Agnes Varda and Claire Denis with references to writers like Rachel Cusk and Karl Ove Knausgård, we get answers to questions that have fluttered the oeuvre of Hong Sang Soo.
I have always found myself stumped on the use of time jumps or hypothetical dream-solving, unsure if it works in narrative structure, but I’ve realized none of it matters. The game of whether or not is the one of most importance, one we hole ourselves in to figure anything out. This is what Hong’s cinema does. Play with expectations. Play with reality. If it’s his or mine or yours or ours, it’s one that disregards time to make sense of who we are.
Lim, in all his work for film, could write on and on and I would read every bit of it. Enough buoyancy in interest with strong resources to sound out thoughts I could never clean up myself. Perfect for anyone interested in Hong’s cinema and clever writing on film.
Lim takes on the nearly impossible task of speaking about a single Hong film. It’s not easy. Talking of one is talking of the others, and with references to other auteurs like Altman, Rohmer, Agnes Varda and Claire Denis with references to writers like Rachel Cusk and Karl Ove Knausgård, we get answers to questions that have fluttered the oeuvre of Hong Sang Soo.
I have always found myself stumped on the use of time jumps or hypothetical dream-solving, unsure if it works in narrative structure, but I’ve realized none of it matters. The game of whether or not is the one of most importance, one we hole ourselves in to figure anything out. This is what Hong’s cinema does. Play with expectations. Play with reality. If it’s his or mine or yours or ours, it’s one that disregards time to make sense of who we are.
Lim, in all his work for film, could write on and on and I would read every bit of it. Enough buoyancy in interest with strong resources to sound out thoughts I could never clean up myself. Perfect for anyone interested in Hong’s cinema and clever writing on film.
July 17, 2023
Fascinating deconstruction of one of the most disorienting, reticent and revolutionary film directors of the modern era. Reifying all things Hong, from his inspiringly pared-down process and "minor" aesthetic to his enigmatic structural designs and propensity for equivocal autofiction splayed out between empty soju bottles, Lim illustrates Tale of Cinema as nothing less than a touchstone in both Hong's career and 21st-century cinema. His vantage pieces the puzzle together with a powerful diversity of interdisciplinary analogies and observations that leaves us with the conviction that the compulsion to solve the puzzle is itself a trap.
May 2, 2024
I could read this man go on about any motion picture in existence, no one can do it quite like him.
It's usually hard for me to articulate and intelectualize how some films work on my brain, so watching someone do it effortlessly, with honesty to spare and showing no trace of affectation is a true joy.
Even though the book is called 'Tale of Cinema', it analyses the whole career of Hong Sang-soo setting that film as the 'glue'/starting point for change/catalyst. It makes a strong point in regards to the enjoyment one can have from watching one or two films by him and feeling uplifted, sad, moved (etc..). But watch some more and you'll open the door to a monumental achievement and real time tracking of someone's progress as an artist. It's the sort of thing you can only see from a distance, with a certain remove.
His films can often play like romantic comedies/slice of life vignettes, with some looking and feeling so similar that trying to recall them separately will sometimes scare me into thinking I suffer from early onset dementia. (Lim seems to feel the same way, to some extent)
However, once you see a few of them in succession and have some grasp of his process (albeit not necessary, it helps) it truly is a rewarding experience. Even though they are not autobiographical per se, you can see growth and maturing in the way Hong Sang-soo handles the stuff that ails and concerns him, be it the volatile nuances of male/female relationships (a sentence that can be applied to pretty much any decade) or the way some men are so fragile/insecure that when that lack of confidence translates into real life it can take the most abhorrent, embarrassing forms. Sometimes it is hard not to look away in shame.
This book makes sense of all that and more with fluency and persuasiveness. It is not hagiography and it doesn't put the director on a pedestal. It is an honest and pondered reflection that invites critical thinking.
Someone please bubble wrap Dennis Lim because there really aren't many film critics like him around.
It's usually hard for me to articulate and intelectualize how some films work on my brain, so watching someone do it effortlessly, with honesty to spare and showing no trace of affectation is a true joy.
Even though the book is called 'Tale of Cinema', it analyses the whole career of Hong Sang-soo setting that film as the 'glue'/starting point for change/catalyst. It makes a strong point in regards to the enjoyment one can have from watching one or two films by him and feeling uplifted, sad, moved (etc..). But watch some more and you'll open the door to a monumental achievement and real time tracking of someone's progress as an artist. It's the sort of thing you can only see from a distance, with a certain remove.
His films can often play like romantic comedies/slice of life vignettes, with some looking and feeling so similar that trying to recall them separately will sometimes scare me into thinking I suffer from early onset dementia. (Lim seems to feel the same way, to some extent)
However, once you see a few of them in succession and have some grasp of his process (albeit not necessary, it helps) it truly is a rewarding experience. Even though they are not autobiographical per se, you can see growth and maturing in the way Hong Sang-soo handles the stuff that ails and concerns him, be it the volatile nuances of male/female relationships (a sentence that can be applied to pretty much any decade) or the way some men are so fragile/insecure that when that lack of confidence translates into real life it can take the most abhorrent, embarrassing forms. Sometimes it is hard not to look away in shame.
This book makes sense of all that and more with fluency and persuasiveness. It is not hagiography and it doesn't put the director on a pedestal. It is an honest and pondered reflection that invites critical thinking.
Someone please bubble wrap Dennis Lim because there really aren't many film critics like him around.
July 6, 2022
I thought this was better than the Goodbye, Dragon Inn book in the series. Some parts of that book were the author's musings on cinema in general instead of focusing on the film and director. This book is a detailed analysis of Tale of Cinema and Hong Sang-soo’s oeuvre, and has helped me better understand his films. One thing I would have liked to see, though, was a section on Hong Sang-soo’s literary influences since that is something David Bordwell and Hong have mentioned before. Maybe someone will write an essay or book on his literary influences one day.
4 ½ stars.
4 ½ stars.
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July 11, 2023Beautiful articulation of the profound spiritual underpinning of a guy with no thoughts who just wants to drink beer and make movies while being sad that all women are better than him
August 22, 2023
“As I laboured on this book…” (p129) & it really shows, a hodgepodge of random thoughts that explore Hong Sang-soo’s universe more than specifically looking at ‘Tale of Cinema’, Sang-soo’s 2005 film.
Of the Decadent Series of books looking at films from the first decade of the 2000’s this is the most scattered and least appealing (the Melissa Anderson look at David Lynch’s ‘Inland Empire’ suffered from poor editing and really looked at Laura Dern instead of the film, however it’s better than this random blurt of thoughts). Not solid enough to be auto fiction & needed a decent editor to wipe out the excess.
Of the Decadent Series of books looking at films from the first decade of the 2000’s this is the most scattered and least appealing (the Melissa Anderson look at David Lynch’s ‘Inland Empire’ suffered from poor editing and really looked at Laura Dern instead of the film, however it’s better than this random blurt of thoughts). Not solid enough to be auto fiction & needed a decent editor to wipe out the excess.
July 6, 2022
Highly enjoyed this. Feels like it helps to both clarify and add fuel to the mythos of Hong Sang Soo. It also really does help me appreciate the movie "Tale of Cinema" itself a lot more than my initial viewing. Worth it for fans and those curious about Hong.
January 21, 2025
put off reading this for so long but i had the good fortune of going to a screening of this film introduced by dennis lim himself and he had so many insights on hong sang soo’s process and how this film was like the key to unlocking all the other hong sang soo movies. kinda funny that since this was published, hong sang soo has dropped idk 5-6 movies? and yet tale of cinema, both this essay and the film are really great at getting meaning and understanding when watching every hong movie
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January 9, 2025A perfect piece of film criticism. Lim’s writing is intelligent, entertaining, and emotional. Essential reading if you are a fan of Hong, who I’d say is one of the most important independent filmmakers ever.
December 30, 2023
I'm not a Hong's cinema fan (though I like how narratology is treated playfully in his films), but I like Dennis Lim meandering writing about Hong's oeuvre. I love how this book is not at all about Tale of Cinema.
May 16, 2022
Wonderful introduction to Hong's films. My favorite of the Decadent editions so far.
September 28, 2024
"The more films Hong makes, the more mysterious and flexible the rules of his universe become: infinite worlds, independent yet porous, linked by the odd wormhole."
---
"In Hong's hands, the zoom becomes comic punctuation, a silent laugh-track. It is a camera move tailor-made for him: an analogue of his characters' ungainly floundering, a witty dramatisation of their self-absorption."
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"Animal urges propel Hong's characters toward the hotel room, but even if those hungers are momentarily sated (and they are often not), his anti-cathartic cinema offers little hope of release. If anything, the walls of these aggressively anonymous, barely windowed rooms seem always to be closing in on their occupants. Some of the messiest behaviour in Hong's movies happens in hotels."
---
"In Hong's hands, the zoom becomes comic punctuation, a silent laugh-track. It is a camera move tailor-made for him: an analogue of his characters' ungainly floundering, a witty dramatisation of their self-absorption."
---
"Animal urges propel Hong's characters toward the hotel room, but even if those hungers are momentarily sated (and they are often not), his anti-cathartic cinema offers little hope of release. If anything, the walls of these aggressively anonymous, barely windowed rooms seem always to be closing in on their occupants. Some of the messiest behaviour in Hong's movies happens in hotels."
October 8, 2023
Was für ein fantastisches Buch, welch genialer Essay. Dennis Lim bespricht in "Tale Of Cinema" den gleichnamigen Film des südkoreanischen Regisseurs Hong Sangsoo und schafft es, in verständlicher Sprache und sehr gutem Lesefluss die Mechaniken, Ideen und das Wirken des Regisseurs auf fesselnde Weise zu beleuchten.
Nicht nur ermöglicht das Buch einen tiefen Zugang zum Film, sondern macht Lust, die gesamte Filmografie Hongs anzuschauen und sich mit seinen darin eingebrachten Gedanken auseinanderzusetzen. Dass es Lim schafft, gleichzeitig die technischen Aspekte des Filmemachens gleichermassen packend im Buch unterzubringen, ist beachtlich.
Nicht nur ermöglicht das Buch einen tiefen Zugang zum Film, sondern macht Lust, die gesamte Filmografie Hongs anzuschauen und sich mit seinen darin eingebrachten Gedanken auseinanderzusetzen. Dass es Lim schafft, gleichzeitig die technischen Aspekte des Filmemachens gleichermassen packend im Buch unterzubringen, ist beachtlich.
June 2, 2024
I'm glad I'd watched half of Hong's films before reading this and not only the movie it's supposedly about (which wasn't one of my faves), since Lim uses Tale of Cinema (the movie) as a foothold to explore the entire Hong project, which feels more and more like one gradually-unfolding gigantic film. I'd ignored Lim's David Lynch book a few years ago, because who needs to read more about David Lynch, but now that I know what his writing is like, I'm prioritizing it.
February 2, 2024
Some great and insightful thoughts here but they’re tucked away under what can sometimes feel like a greatest hits recap of hongs work
August 3, 2024
T'estimo Hong Sang-Soo
April 14, 2025
Lim makes my LetterBoxd reviews looks like child’s play
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January 18, 2025Much like Bresson's Notes on the Cinematograph, this is a sacred text to me. A bible I carry with me wherever I go—sometimes in my pockets, always in my mind; my heart; my sensibilities.
Another one I revisit from time to time, at random intervals, and another one I reread from start to finish this week— for the same reason as I did Bresson's collections of aphorisms and dictums—and a work I will write extensively about in the future, but for now I will selfishly keep my extended thoughts private, on personal notes, word documents, and thesis drafts (to present a slight tease, to those who may not already know).
Last word: My Christmas gift to everyone is a forceful recommendation of this, even for those who may be yet unfamiliar with Hong—maybe particularly so—and those who, like me, have seen all 32 of his feature films.
Another one I revisit from time to time, at random intervals, and another one I reread from start to finish this week— for the same reason as I did Bresson's collections of aphorisms and dictums—and a work I will write extensively about in the future, but for now I will selfishly keep my extended thoughts private, on personal notes, word documents, and thesis drafts (to present a slight tease, to those who may not already know).
Last word: My Christmas gift to everyone is a forceful recommendation of this, even for those who may be yet unfamiliar with Hong—maybe particularly so—and those who, like me, have seen all 32 of his feature films.
August 12, 2024
I reviewed this book for Cha: An Asian Literary Journal: https://chajournal.blog/2024/08/11/ta...
June 11, 2024
This short book offers some insightful analysis and context for the films of Hong Sang-Soo, branching off from Tale of Cinema (my favorite) to view his whole career through several different lenses. The films' similarities and connections naturally cause them to flow into one another when focusing in on any specific topic, so this structure that always comes back to one as an anchor works well.
While probably best for fans who've seen at least a majority of the director's work, I suppose it could also help explain the appeal for those who don't feel they quite "get" what others see in his films. I especially appreciate one of the book's later conclusions about the ambiguous structures and endings found in many Hong films, that it's in no small part the lack of a clear "solution" or answer to these puzzles that keeps them lingering in our minds long after the credits roll.
The contents of this book definitely shed some new light on the Hong films I already watched, and I expect to have an even richer experience with the ones I have left to see.
While probably best for fans who've seen at least a majority of the director's work, I suppose it could also help explain the appeal for those who don't feel they quite "get" what others see in his films. I especially appreciate one of the book's later conclusions about the ambiguous structures and endings found in many Hong films, that it's in no small part the lack of a clear "solution" or answer to these puzzles that keeps them lingering in our minds long after the credits roll.
The contents of this book definitely shed some new light on the Hong films I already watched, and I expect to have an even richer experience with the ones I have left to see.
August 3, 2024
“We’re repeating images imprinted on us by others”!!!
So so SO good, love the discussion of time in hotels not being the same as time in the outside world. Hotels are 100% portals imo.
Really want to make a film now.
BUT!!! The fact that the author brought up the deaths of actors/actresses, to say that their eventual deaths are relevant to the theme of Sang Soo’s work is wholly inappropriate and absurd. Found it absolutely ridiculous and distasteful . Really tone deaf. These are real people like??? RIP Kim Joohyuk, I love u.
That’s why 4 stars instead of 5, really stained the book for me, unbelievably disrespectful. Was baffled and appalled.
So so SO good, love the discussion of time in hotels not being the same as time in the outside world. Hotels are 100% portals imo.
Really want to make a film now.
BUT!!! The fact that the author brought up the deaths of actors/actresses, to say that their eventual deaths are relevant to the theme of Sang Soo’s work is wholly inappropriate and absurd. Found it absolutely ridiculous and distasteful . Really tone deaf. These are real people like??? RIP Kim Joohyuk, I love u.
That’s why 4 stars instead of 5, really stained the book for me, unbelievably disrespectful. Was baffled and appalled.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews