Hong Sangsoo’s ‘The Day She Returns’ Sets U.S. Release With ‘The Day He Arrives’ Double Bill, Unveils Trailer (EXCLUSIVE)

Hong Sangsoo’s Berlinale competition title “The Day She Returns” will open in U.S. theaters next month through Cinema Guild. It will be paired with a double-bill screening of the Korean auteur’s 2011 feature “The Day He Arrives.” The rollout begins Dec. 15 at Acropolis in Los Angeles, with the film opening at New York’s Metrograph on Dec. 18. Cinema Guild, which handles U.S. and Canadian distribution, will then widen the release across the country in January, taking the double feature with it. Shot in black and white, “The Day She Returns” follows a middle-aged actor stepping back into public view after years away. She quit performing when she married, came back to the work after her divorce and made an independent film whose release she is now promoting. Over a single day, she sits for three press interviews spaced half an hour apart, trying hard with every answer. Later, at an acting class she joined recently, her teacher asks her to restage those conversations. At the crucial moments, her memory goes blank. Worn out, she just wants to get home, where her daughter is waiting. Song Sunmi is first-billed in a cast that also includes Cho Yunhee, Park Miso, Kim Sunjin, Kang Soyi, Oh Yunsu, Ha Seongguk and Shin Seokho. Hong wrote, directed and produced the film, and also served as its cinematographer, editor and composer. Kim Minhee was production manager. Jeonwonsa Film Co. produced, and Finecut handles world sales. Beyond Berlin, the film has been selected for the Hong Kong, Shanghai and Melbourne festivals, as well as the New York Film Festival, AFI Fest and the San Diego Asian Film Festival. A trailer has been unveiled: The Berlin slot was Hong’s ninth invitation to the festival’s competition. Born in Seoul in 1960, the filmmaker has made 35 features since his 1996 debut “The Day a Pig Fell Into the Well,” and has a second 2026 title, “Nowhere to Lay My Eyes.” “The Day He Arrives” centers on Seongjun (Yu Junsang), a director who has given up making movies and now teaches at a small rural college. He travels to Seoul to see his friend Youngho (Kim Sangjoong), a film critic, but is stood up and drifts around the city. He has a chance encounter with an old actor acquaintance, spends a night out with a group of young film students and eventually shows up at the home of his former girlfriend Kyungjin. The next day, he finally catches up with Youngho and meets Yejeon, a bar owner who is Kyungjin’s double. The day after that plays out much like the one before. Kim Bokyung plays both women. Song, first-billed in the new film, plays Boram, a film studies professor, in the 2011 feature. “The Day He Arrives,” also shot in black and white, premiered in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section in 2011. The pairing will put two of Hong’s monochrome “Day” films, made 15 years apart, on the same bill.