The Asian Film Archive presents Twin Tales, a special programme featuring six pairings of films by French New Wave director Éric Rohmer and prolific Korean filmmaker Hong Sang-soo. Both directors craft intimate, deceptively simple, philosophical worlds from the mundanity of everyday life, navigating moral quandaries through meandering walks, long, awkward dinners, chance encounters, and mistaken identities. Their characters, often artists, filmmakers, writers, or solitary middle-class figures, grapple with fragile egos, desire, indecision, social propriety, and the fictions they conjure in the pursuit of meaning and connection.

Whether set against the seasonal rhythms of France or the winter landscapes of Seoul, these flâneur-like figures drift through urban spaces with an understated humour and emotional ambiguity. The films’ use of situational irony and playful structures often undergird their protagonists’ repetitive behavioural patterns and gestures,  hinting at a deeper cosmic circularity in life’s rhythms.

This programme explores Rohmer’s notable and widely acclaimed works as an entry point into his oeuvre, alongside Hong’s lesser-known (but no less foundational) early films. Twin Tales invites audiences to reflect on the affinities and divergences between Rohmer’s wry moral tales and Hong’s elliptical, minimalist, and self-reflexive portraits. Together, their films offer a cinema where inner worlds of language, ethics, and desire collide with the fleeting nature of existence.

Twin Tales: Éric Rohmer and Hong Sang-soo runs from 5 – 27 July 2025 at Oldham Theatre.

There will be a post-screening online Q&A session with Éric Rohmer’s longtime editor Mary Stephen after the 20 July screening of A Summer’s Tale. 

Programme

Here are the suggested pairings on how to navigate our selection of Rohmer and Hong’s cinema:

Wanderers in Transit
The Green Ray (Le Rayon Vert, 1986, Éric Rohmer)
Woman on the Beach (해변의 여인, 2006, Hong Sang-soo)

Entangling of the Selves
A Summer’s Tale (Conte d’été, 1996, Éric Rohmer)
Our Sunhi (우리 선희, 2013, Hong Sang-soo)

Daydreams and Fidelity in Paris
Love in the Afternoon (L’Amour l’après-midi, 1972, Éric Rohmer)
Night and Day (밤과 낮, 2008, Hong Sang-soo)

Delusions and Distorted Desires
The Collector (La Collectionneuse, 1967, Éric Rohmer)
Woman is the Future of Man (여자는 남자의 미래다, 2004, Hong Sang-soo)

Navigating Moral Terrains in Black and White
My Night at Maud’s (Ma nuit chez Maud, 1969, Éric Rohmer)
The Day After (그 후, 2017, Hong Sang-soo)

Knowing and Re-knowing the Other
Autumn Tale (Conte d’automne, 1998, Éric Rohmer)
Yourself and Yours (당신자신과 당신의, 2016, Hong Sang-soo)

Tickets for Twin Tales: Hong Sang-soo and Éric Rohmer will be on sale from Wednesday, 18 June 2025. Scroll down to select the screening of your choice and click through to purchase tickets.

Friends of AFA members, please read the membership guide on how to purchase your discounted tickets and redeem your complimentary tickets.

Oldham Theatre’s opening hours

For further assistance, please contact us at ticketing@asianfilmarchive.org 

Important Notice:

Do note that Oldham Theatre operates on a free seating arrangement. Doors will open 20 minutes before showtime so arrive early to choose a seat and avoid disrupting the screenings as AFA does not play ads and screenings will start promptly.

All patrons are encouraged to purchase your tickets online. If you choose to purchase tickets or merchandise at Oldham Theatre’s box office, cashless payment is preferred.

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T&Cs
Concession tickets apply to Students (Local & Overseas), Full-time National Servicemen (NSF), Senior Citizens (55 years and above) only.

Please check film ratings before purchase of tickets. Please note that you may be asked to present your ID at the door (this applies to concession tickets as well). Only physical photographic identification is allowed, digital copies of identification are not allowed. AFA reserves the right to turn away any members of the public without physical photographic identification.

Upon confirmation of your order for Tickets, no exchange of Tickets will be made under any circumstances and Tickets are not transferable. No refund on Tickets will be made under any circumstances except due to cancellation of the event. The resale of Tickets at any price is prohibited.