Originally published on June 1, 2022 on Letterboxd
If you haven’t felt the frustration of a lack of productivity, of change, and of meaning in your life, then you’re simply not human. It’s something we’ve all wrestled with at some point. Our souls require engagement and active living. It is active living to acknowledge one’s inactivity, at least to an extent. Sometimes, it’s just a complete motivational block inside us that keeps us spinning our wheels and reliving the same day over and over, but often, it’s a deeper issue, a lack of spiritual connection, of any sense of divinity in our lives that’s required for us to live richly.
I’d watched a few Ozu films before seeing The Day He Arrives, which helped me appreciate this, my first Hong Sang-soo film. Apparently the director’s films are all a lot alike, so I’m very happy to have connected with this at all so as to not be alienated from the man’s entire filmography. I see a lot of Ozu in this film, not just because of the black and white or the slow pace, but because of the emotional disconnect and the waiting. There is emotion in this film, as with Ozu’s work, but it’s stunted, muted, and not on display for all to see as with most films. People make jokes about “literally me” characters and how they can relate to lonely, emotionally distant characters, but those characters are usually wrapped up in some larger story, with some sort of masculinity or code driving them. But this, this is just a story about an inactive, lonely guy and that’s it. It’s about how we never use out time as wisely as we should, how we make the same mistakes over and over, and how our days are unchanging because our mindset is unchanging.
I hate that I identified with the protagonist of this film. Not because of his spinelessness or his emotional instability, but because of his inability to move forward with his work and produce something. He is a film director, a man who only has a few minor works to show for his life, unable to continue on to his next project. “Without a vision, the people perish.” I’ve been there. Hell, I’m still there. I want to write stories and finish projects, but it seems like the most I can ever come up with is shitty film reviews for a small audience. That’s because art is work. Work is risk. Risk is hard. Work is hard. Art is hard. Producing is hard. We are sub-creators under God, but because of our sinfulness, we are constantly struggling with the two natures at war inside us. The one that wants to create beautiful things as God has, to put our gifts and talents to work for His glory and our fulfillment, yet it goes against the lazy, useless, evil side of us that just wants us to sit and do nothing, to have nothing to show for our lives, to never be more than we are.
You have to fight for everything that matters in life, especially when it comes to creating things. Whether it be a relationship, a family, a successful career, a personal project, or something else, you must overcome the spiritual warfare that occurs inside of you every time you feel unmotivated to get to work. Because make no mistake, that lack of motivation you feel is spiritual warfare. These are all the things that this film stirred inside of me, so thank you, Hong Sang-soo, for this weird little personal work. At the very least, it made me sit down and write a little bit after watching it.
Eye on Everything 