A One Mann’s Movies review of “A Traveler’s Needs” (2024) (From the 2024 London Film Festival).
Original Title: Yeohaengjaui pilyo.
Well, it had to end at some point this week. I’ve enjoyed all of the films in this first (press-preview) week of the LFF up to this point. But I’m afriad I did not enjoy “A Traveler’s Needs” at all!
Bob the Movie Man Rating:
“A Traveler’s Needs” Plot Summary:
Iris (pronounced “Ee-ris”) (Isabelle Huppert) is a teacher of French in modern day South Korea. She has an unorthodox method of making her students recount an emotional memory before writing it down in French on cards for them to learn.
Certification:
UK: NR; US: NR. (This has not yet been rated by the BBFC. I would expect it to be a ’12’ since I can’t see anything in particular to offend anyone other than a bit of excess drinking.)
Talent:
Starring: Isabelle Huppert, Yunhee Cho, Kwon Hae-hyo, Lee Hye-young, Ha Seong-guk.
Directed by: Hong Sang-soo.
Written by: Hong Sang-soo.
Running Time: 1h 30m.
“A Traveler’s Needs” Summary:
Positives:
- It’s thankfully short.
Negatives:
- A repetitious plot that failed to ignite my interest in any way.
- Improvisations that, for me anyway, were just plain embarrassing.
Review of “A Traveler’s Needs”:
It’s art, I get it. But I don’t have to enjoy it.
Sigh. The film is composed of a series of vignettes with the first three being Iris engaged with three different pupils. The process with the first pupil was mildly engaging. But then, for the second pupil, we go through EXACTLY the same scene… word for word. The ‘process’ doesn’t seem to make any sense since all the students have is the cards written in French…. not the Korean or even English equivalent phrases!
Is it art? Maybe. Is it facile and pointless? In my view, definitely. Maybe you will retort that “sometimes art needs to be facile and pointless”. In which case, please enjoy this film!
Improvised segments.
I don’t mind improvisation. In fact, I once regularly went to an evening class which practiced it for fun. But significant chunks of the film are taken up with this sort of spit-balling. Iris and the high-level husband of the third student (Kwon Hae-hyo) spend minutes discussing (fairly mindlessly) her ballpoint pen.
In other scenes we, repeatedly, translate the poems of poets that died young. What is this all supposed to mean? Frankly, I found it to be like watching paint dry.
Where’s the meat?
In a final segment, we see where Iris has been sleeping while in Korea… she is shacked up (but not necessarily in a sexual way?) with a young student called Inguk (Ha Seong-guk). We at least get a little bit of drama when his over-protective mother turns up. But even this segment doesn’t really go anywhere.
Summary Thoughts on “A Traveler’s Needs”
I believe the writer/director Hong Sang-soo has a certain arthouse following who will be no doubt incenced by my review. There may have been some people in the screening who liked this… who saw this as “Sang-soo engaged in a contemplative reflection on the isolation of people in society and the importance of language in mending society” (or some such clap). But I was not one of them. There were two walk-outs that I saw (and I was sat half-way down the auditorium). If it was not for my “no walking under any circumstances” policy, I might have joined them.
But, hey, 1 film out of 15 isn’t a bad strike rate for the first week of LFF is it?
Where to Watch it (Powered by Justwatch)
Trailer for “A Traveler’s Needs”:
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wy00Mqf3Mas .
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