The Day After
Cinema Guild | Release Date: May 11, 2018 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
72
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 14 Critic Reviews
Positive:
10
Mixed:
4
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
91
The PlaylistNikola GrozdanovicMay 24, 2017
Infidelity has long been one of Hong’s central subjects, but The Day After might just be his greatest film about the ails of mixing business with pleasure. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleMay 17, 2018
The machination is comic, and the repercussions carry the awkward tinge of threadbare farce, but the vibe is pure melancholy, echoed in the clinically beautiful monochromatic cinematography and the tinny, weeping musical phrase Hong often leans on to close his extended takes of dialogue. Read full review
90
The New YorkerRichard BrodyMay 10, 2018
Avowals of literary ambitions and familial devotion, stories of death and faith, and a bold dramatic structure—based on flashbacks and leaps forward in time—set the vagaries of work and love on the firm footing of destiny. Read full review
90
The New York TimesA.O. ScottMay 9, 2018
The Day After, one of three films this prolific director brought to festivals in 2017 (another one screened in Berlin in February), is an especially elegant presentation of some of his [Mr. Hong’s] characteristic concerns. Read full review
88
Slant MagazineChuck BowenMay 8, 2018
As with most Hong Sang-soo films, it engages in intellectual gamesmanship while courting emotional pathos. Read full review
83
The Film StageRory O'ConnorMay 25, 2017
With its drab interior settings, cinematographer Kim Hyung-koo’s uncharacteristically unforgiving black-and-white photography, brutally honest subject matter, and rare moments of catharsis, it’s not the easiest watch. Of course, it’s this very slog that makes bigger moments all the more powerful. Read full review
70
Village VoiceBilge EbiriMay 10, 2018
The imaginative and compassionate leaps of Hong’s other recent films — which spin stories out of the wounded women in the filmmaker’s life — are nowhere to be found. Still, the candor is impressive, and the pain feels real. The Day After may not be a particularly great film, but it does feel like a necessary one. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterBoyd van HoeijMay 24, 2017
Hong, who again wrote as well as directed, hasn’t suddenly become someone interested in things such as densely plotted narratives and surprise twists, with the few events that happen only excuses to dig a little deeper into the behavior and feelings of his protagonists. Read full review
70
VarietyGuy LodgeMay 24, 2017
Even lesser Hong has its lackadaisical pleasures, and The Day After has its share of wry musings and twitchy banter between characters to counter its visual stasis and lulling storytelling. Read full review
67
IndieWireDavid EhrlichMay 25, 2017
The film is carried along on a powerful undercurrent of regret, and it comes to feel as though Bong-wan is a prisoner in the book-lined office where he ostensibly holds all the power. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawMay 24, 2017
The Day After is an elegant exercise. It feels like a chapter from something bigger. Read full review
60
Screen DailyWendy IdeMay 24, 2017
All but the most dedicated fans of the director’s work might find this story a little too diffuse and meandering, its rewards too deeply buried beneath the evasive wordiness. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comSimon AbramsMay 11, 2018
With the uninspired pity party comedy The Day After, self-lacerating Korean dramatist Sang-soo Hong continues a trend towards un-productive self-loathing that began last year with the half-empty "On the Beach At Night Alone" and continued with the half-full "Claire's Camera." Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloMay 8, 2018
A lazy shoulder shrug of a movie that never bothers to work out who its characters are, what they want, or why their ostensible problems should be of interest to anyone else. Read full review
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