Since his debut in 1996 with The Day a Pig Fell Into the Well, the remarkable Korean auteur Hong Sang-soo has made twenty-two feature films, which effectively averages out at a film a year. He started slow (one every two years) but recently has started to reach Fassbinder-levels of prolificacy: between the 2017 Berlin Film Festival and Locarno in 2018, just eighteen months later, he premiered five new films. Almost as miraculously, all five have been—or are about to be—released in U.S. theaters by Cinema Guild. Just a few months ago the boutique distributor unveiled what will surely be one of my, and many people’s, favorite posters of the year: a monochrome minimalist masterpiece with exquisite bespoke lettering for Hotel by the River. And now Movie Poster of the Week is honored to premiere their latest design for their newest Hong Sang-soo release: Grass. A spry and whimsical collage of coffee, cigarettes, soju, and the various patrons of the café where most of the film takes place, all anchored by a rambling pathway of green, the poster was designed by Brian Hung, Cinema Guild’s in-house designer. Hung has designed all five of their recent Hong Sang-soo posters and each one has been a delight. One false criticism leveled at Hong is that all his films are alike, but the same can’t be said of these posters, each of which has a unique style, while all displaying a sense of playfulness and graphic experimentation that ties them all together.
Brian’s previous Hong Sang-soo designs are below.
Many thanks to Brian Hung and Peter Kelly. Grass opens in New York on April 19 and in Los Angeles on April 24. You can watch the exquisite new trailer for the film here. And you can purchase all these posters from Cinema Guild’s website.