So that’s the plot, and it only exists so that the characters can hold forth on gender dynamics in the second act. But before that, we get to luxuriate in the muted winter beauty of the river scenery, accentuated by the crisp black-and-white digital image

| May 24, 2024

Both of this year’s productions are in black-and-white, always a reliable indicator that Hong’s in a heavy mood; I don’t necessarily mind that, but Hotel by the River struck me as lugubrious.

| Jan 4, 2023

Episode 41: Best of 2019 So Far

| Original Score: 72/100 | Oct 4, 2021

I start to watch Hong Sang-soo's latest film and I am immediately moved when he relates, with an almost poetic look, things related to love, family and death. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 7/10 | Aug 2, 2020

Hong Sang-soo was the most reliable auteur of the decade...

| Dec 30, 2019

Hotel by the River is a masterwork in fostering relationships between its characters. It is a testament to the beauty of the bond between not only parents and their children, but the bond between friends.

| Dec 19, 2019

Builds from a series of slight vignettes into a moving story of an ageing poet trying to take stock of his life in what may be his waning days.

| Dec 18, 2019

It's an explosive, soul-baring display from a filmmaker who hasn't lost - and indeed, may be rediscovering - his capacity for surprise.

| Dec 18, 2019

A heartfelt reflection on death and beauty. [Full Review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Oct 8, 2019

Beautifully shot in melancholic black and white, the film posts most existential questions without focusing too much on the passage of time.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 1, 2019

Hong has created a fine work of maturity. [Full Review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 5/5 | Sep 1, 2019

The pleasure is in the particularities of each delivery in that game variations on the narcissism, solitude and love and the loss that composes the filmography of Hong Sangsoo. [Full Review in Spanish]

| Aug 31, 2019

[Director Hong Sang-soo] not only cares about collecting beauty but its verbalization. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 5/5 | Aug 30, 2019

In his own way through each film, Hong Sang-So is becoming a classic reference in contemporary Asian cinema. [Full Review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Aug 27, 2019

[Another Hong Sang-soo masterpiece. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 5/5 | Aug 26, 2019

A tremendous framework of presence and perspicuity from the great master of South Korean cinema. There's no reason to miss it.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Jul 3, 2019

Shot in muted black and white, South Korean director Hong Sang-soo's Hotel by the River lets two stories unfold gently through idle conversations against a winter setting.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 23, 2019

Within its modestly composed black and white frames lies a profoundly open-ended exploration of the very faults, foibles, dreams, and contradictions that make us human.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | May 18, 2019

"Hotel by the River" is one of the "tamest" films of Hong Sang-soo, but remains a very enjoyable experience, and I felt that its style applies to a much wider, although again art-house oriented, audience, than the majority of his films

| Apr 21, 2019

For all its solemn beauty, Hotel by the River is lax and under-imagined compared to Hong's masterpieces.

| Mar 21, 2019