Time isn’t on the side of a frustrated lover in ‘Hill of Freedom’ – Madison.com

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A Japanese man (Ryo Kase, right) meets a coffee shop owner (Moon So-ri, left) while searching for a woman in South Korea in "Hill of Freedom."

Mori (Ryo Kase) is a Japanese man who walks around a town in South Korea carrying a book about time. The barista at the coffee shop he frequents keeps telling him, Tell me about it later.

Thats a droll joke, because there is no later, or earlier, in Hong Sang-soos Hill of Freedom. In telling Moris adventures, Hong has chosen to jumble up the chronology of the scenes in the film. So we see Mori go to bed with the friendly coffee server (Moon So-ri), and then later, she casually flirts with him over a slice of chocolate cake as if they had just met.

Hill of Freedom was filmed in 2014, but Hong has released so many films lately that its finally now making it to America. The UW Cinematheque is screening the film as part of a Virtual Cinema series, and is giving away a limited number of free screening links to viewers who email HILL to info@cinema.wisc.edu.

Mori has come to South Korea with a purpose. Hes trying to reunite with a Japanese woman Kwon (Seo Young-hwa), with whom he previously had a relationship, or at least a deep friendship. He has an address but no phone number for her, so his plan is to show up, uninvited and unannounced, in her town and try to track her down.

Bad plan. Hill of Freedom follows Mori as he fruitlessly wanders the streets trying to find Kwon, who he keeps just missing. While hes wandering around, he has that romance with the coffee shop owner (the shop is called Hill of Freedom) and chats with the pushy nephew of the owner of the B&B hes staying at.

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Time isn't on the side of a frustrated lover in 'Hill of Freedom' - Madison.com