Jessica Kiang Like cracking a window in a stuffy room, it sometimes feels as if Hong Sangsoo’s films are where festival lineups go when they need to breathe.
The 2021 Berlin Film Festival takes a quick, deep lungful with “Introduction,” an airy 66-minute sampler of everything the Korean director’s fans admire, which is coincidentally everything his detractors dislike.
But despite the familiarly strange, gossamer-spiderweb pattern of glancing encounters and dropped connections, “Introduction” is not as featherweight as it might first appear.
And contrary to its title, it’s an expansion pack rather than an entry-level starter kit for the Hong Cinematic Universe.The filmmaker however needs no introducing to the Berlinale.
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