Hotel by the River

Hotel by the River centres on Younghwan, an aging poet staying at a hotel beside a frozen river. Convinced that his death is approaching, he summons his two estranged sons, whom he has not seen in a long time, hoping to settle unfinished matters during their visit. At the same time, a young woman who has been betrayed by the man she lived with takes a room at the same hotel and calls a friend to join her for comfort. A heavy snowfall brings the two strands of the story together.

Hong Sang-soo directed, wrote and produced the film, the fifth of the fifteen features he has made in chronological order, arriving between Claire's Camera and The Woman Who Ran. Ki Joo-bong plays Younghwan, with Kim Min-hee as Ahreum, Song Sun-mi as Yeonju, Kwon Hae-hyo as Gyeongsu, Yu Jun-sang as Byeongsu and Park Ran as Yu-jung.

The film runs 96 minutes. On IMDb it holds a rating of 6.7 from around 1,800 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 6.4 from a much smaller number of votes. A critics' rating of 7.8 from 45 reviews places it noticeably higher with reviewers than with general audiences.