The Novelist's Film was one of the best movies Hong Sang-soo has made in the last few years, and that's saying a lot, since all his movies are really good. This one has a lot of metafiction, which proves a great opportunity for him to comment on the creative processes around the making of a movie. But what really sets his work apart from that of other filmmakers is the subtlety with which he inserts important informations about the characters in seemingly trivial dialogs. In the case of The Novelist's Film, this is revealed by some hints that make us believe that all the casual encounters that happen throughout the action might not have been so fortuitous. This is something I noticed when I watched the movie, but since no one else is talking about it, I kept wondering if I was seeing more than what was really there. Reflecting a little about it, though, I realized that was not the case. Some of these hints are too clear (even though not too obvious) to be ignored: the way the novelist stares so intently to a path, as if she was looking for something specific, and how she suggests a hike in the park immediately after she sees the actress passing through the lens of the lunette, suggests she was already preparing the encounter with the actress. The way she seems to know her habit of walking in the park, as well as some personal passages of her life, also imply that she knows more about her than what would be expected from a regular fan. Finally, the complete absence of the actress's husband is also suggestive, as well as the novelist's decision to position the camera of her film in a first person perspective, as if the one shooting (or watching) the film, was the actress's husband. A remark made by the actress's nephew is also revealing: he says the novelist watched the film at least 300 times while they were editing it. All these hints suggest the novelist was already obsessed with the actress, and planned their encounter and the making of the movie much ahead of their actual meeting. It is not clear from where this obsession comes. Perhaps she sees the actress as an equal, since she decided to retire from the movie industry, the same way she is feeling stranded from the literally world. Or perhaps it is a romantic interest, as seems to be suggested by her film, where she virtually puts herself in the place of the actress's husband. The dialog between the novelist and the actress where this would probably be explained, after the latter watched the movie and, seeming a little disturbed, went to confront the novelist, who was visibly nervous about her reaction, is not included in the movie, so all the audience can do is speculate. Whatever is the answer, though, it is clear that The Novelist's Film has so much more to offer than can be found on the surface of the story, and is a movie that merits repeated views.
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