In the realm of contemporary film aesthetics, auteurism is increasingly becoming a focus of attention in both academic and creative circles. The author argues that this model, which centers on the director as the creative core and emphasizes the expre...
In the realm of contemporary film aesthetics, auteurism is increasingly becoming a focus of attention in both academic and creative circles. The author argues that this model, which centers on the director as the creative core and emphasizes the expression of individual subjective spirit and artistic philosophy, can trace its developmental lineage back to the aesthetic philosophies of Kant and Schiller. Within the theoretical framework of their time, artistic creation was defined as the external manifestation of individual subjective spirit, liberated from traditional aesthetics' excessive fixation on form and technique. In the early 20th century, the French avant-garde film movement, with its stylized visual language and structural experiments, propelled auteurism from philosophical concept to visual expression. Meanwhile, the Soviet Montage school, starting from the structural function of film language, explored how techniques such as editing and shot sequencing could achieve the visualization of directorial subjectivity, thereby laying a solid foundation for auteurism at the level of film ontology. In the 1950s, French journal Cahiers du Cinéma formally systematized auteurism. François Truffaut, in his work A Certain Tendency of the French Cinema, explicitly proposed that directors should control the language of film as novelists control written language, making cinema an extension of their own personality, emotions, and thoughts. This theory not only provided a practical pathway for the French New Wave directors but also profoundly reshaped global filmmaking paradigms. It extended auteurism from the philosophical and aesthetic realms into an actionable creative methodology, while continuously deepening its intellectual depth through integration with modern thoughts such as phenomenology and psychoanalysis.
The author contends that South Korean director Hong Sang-soo is a quintessential and irreplaceable figure in the East Asian context, representing the profound implementation and localized reinterpretation of the concept of auteurism. Unlike Western "auteur cinema," which often emphasizes formal experimentation and radical expression, Hong's auteurism not only inherits the tradition of personalized narrative perspectives and visual experimentation but also transforms it into an expressive strategy imbued with cultural criticism and existential reflection. His creative distinctiveness manifests across multiple dimensions. First, his personal experiences of growing up under South Korea’s authoritarian political pressures and the loosening of traditional family structures infuse his works with a profound realism characterized by emotional alienation and identity confusion. Furthermore, his international perspective, shaped by his studies in the United States, enables him to integrate Robert Bresson’s minimalism, Éric Rohmer’s exploration of moral dilemmas, and Yasujirō Ozu’s static aesthetics, ultimately forming a creative signature characterized by "expressing philosophical contemplation through everyday life." Therefore, this study systematically analyzes Hong Sang-soo’s auteurist style from three perspectives: the aesthetics of visual composition, narrative aesthetics, and the aesthetics of character portrayal and spatial design.
In the third chapter of the paper, the author focuses on the aesthetic composition of Hong Sang-soo’s films, with particular emphasis on his visual system centered around an "anti-industrial naturalistic expression." Hong intentionally eschews the technical complexity and dramatic visual strategies characteristic of mainstreamindustrial cinema, opting instead for minimalist imagery to convey emotion and philosophical reflection, thereby forging a distinct aesthetic approach. This chapter unfolds in three aspects: First, it analyzes the visual transparency achieved through the "absence of the camera"—that is, the use of "passive cinematography" techniques such as static long takes and natural lighting to reduce the sense of technical mediation, bringing the imagery closer to the authenticity of life. This section also elucidates how such techniques, from technical, temporal, and ethical perspectives, enhance the audience’s perception of characters’ psychology. Second, it examines the emotive treatment of visual language, including how minimalist compositions focus attention on characters’ emotions, pointillist color schemes create psychological suggestions, and medium-close shots foster emotional connections, revealing the deep integration of visual elements with emotional expression. Third, drawing on semiotic theory, it analyzes the poetic function of everyday objects—such as coffee and alcohol as carriers of desire, and natural spaces as psychological metaphors—demonstrating the symbolic significance and narrative role of ordinary items in Hong’s visual repertoire.
Chapter Four delves into the aesthetics of everyday life narrative in Hong Sang-soo’s works, with a focus on analyzing the narrative construction centered around auteurism. Hong intentionally avoids dramatic conflicts, instead extracting stories from daily life, thereby creating a distinct divergence from mainstream cinema. This chapter elaborates on three key aspects: First, it examines the technique of fragmented narration, such as the use of mundane dialogues to dilute plot-driven progression, the adoption of non-linear structures like repetition and flashbacks to reconstruct psychological authenticity, and the portrayal of characters’ multiple identities to reflect dilemmas of self-identity. Second, it categorizes the expression of stereotypical emotional relationships, covering emotional detachment within families, fluctuating trust in friendships, and ambiguous explorations in romantic relationships, thereby presenting the complex typology of interpersonal emotions. Third, it explores the stereotypical portrayal of gender roles, contrasting the restrained and evasive emotional expressions of male characters with the proactive emotional articulation of female characters, while analyzing the moral ambiguity in gender interactions to reveal the realistic dilemmas inherent in contemporary gender dynamics.
Chapter Five focuses on Hong Sang-soo's "aesthetics of improvisational character portrayal," aiming to elucidate his creative logic that breaks away from predetermined scripts and rigid performance models. The analysis in this chapter unfolds along three dimensions:On the discursive level, it explores how monologues and dialogues externalize characters' psychology, while employing repetition and variation to advance the narrative and facilitate philosophical reflection. On the level of creative mode, it examines the performance freedom afforded by the absence of fixed scripts, the dissolution of causal logic through loose narrative structures, and the mechanism by which improvisation integrates with the director's authorial style.On the level of performance, it analyzes the use of de-dramatization techniques, such as the inclusion of performance "flaws" and behavioral "pauses," to foster a sense of authenticity, as well as the subtle mapping of natural environments onto psychological states, ultimately constructing a performance aesthetics that closely mirrors everyday life.
Chapter Six examines Hong Sang-soo’sspatial aesthetics based on
lived experience, focusing on the narrative function of space as an emotional carrier and psychological extension. The analysis unfolds according to spatial typologies: private spaces are interpreted as sites of emotional absence, with residential and social spaces respectively symbolizing the alienation of intimate relationships and the dilemmas of social performance; public spaces highlight the obstruction of emotional expression, such as the experience of solitude during walks or communicative barriers in cafe; natural spaces are endowed with therapeutic and transitional significance, categorized into aquatic and mountainous environments that respectively facilitate emotional release and psychological transformation. Through this aesthetic transformation of space, Hong Sang-soo demonstrates a profound insight into the existential condition of modern individuals