Korean Filmmaker Hong Sang-soo's Fictional/Factual "On the Beach at Night Alone" Won't Strike Home in US

Hong Sangsoo (b S. Korea 1960) is a prolific and highly regarded screenwriter/director (In Another Country).  His filmmaking accolades have of late taken a back seat to notoriety.  Mr. Hong's professional relationship with Kim Man-hee (b S. Korea 1982) had become personal off-screen. Mr Hong has often worked with the lovely, talented Ms Kim who is a celebrity in S. Korea like Kim K here.  The press has pressed the couple into affirming an adulterous relationship that has gotten mass media attention in S. Korea.  The couple's tumultuous & titillating affair has taken a personal toll on both director and leading actress.  The film is beautifully shot in both Germany & S. Korea.  The story is divided into 2 segments.  The first is set in Germany and the later in a seaside city in S. Korea.  Young-hee (Ms. Kim) is toying with her friend the idea of remaining in Germany & living with her.  The two take long walks in the desolate park & along the cold shore discussing their desires, quagmires of the importance of honesty, companionship and experiencing everything in life before dying.  Other hot topics include eating, adultery & death with dignity set against frigid landscapes.  There is a disconnect between the two women within their friendship.  The film set in Germany ends with Young-hee being carried off from the beach at night by a stranger who had been stalking the women.  The rest of the movie is set in S. Korea where the same enigmatic male appears behind glass as if invisible to Young-hee & her friends.  Here too, she flirts with the idea of living  permanently and coy about her relationship with the director whom she often collaborates.  The two halves of the movie mirror each other in tone, oceanside views and drunken discourse.  The final dinner party ends pitting the legendary director (Mr Hong) across from Young-hee.  They both have at it in their inebriated states; his love has wrought" shame & dying regrets".  Talk about airing your dirty laundry...art imitating life, life imitating art.  I found this confessing too distressing.  I'm not interested in a voyeuristic film of Kim & Kanye bickering over an affair though many here might care.  I don't think the masses here will clamor for Hong's confessional film "On the Beach at Night Alone".