The Handmaiden's Kim Min-hee won Berlin's Silver Bear for her performance as an actress recovering from an affair in this meditation on lost love by Hong Sang-soo.

Young-hee finds herself on the outer of the Korean film industry after her affair with a married director becomes public knowledge, and she retreats to Hamburg. In the company of an old friend she attempts to move on, but finds herself so strangely agitated that she must return home and confront her former lover.

Clearly inspired by director Hong Sang-soo and star Kim Min-hee's own extramarital affair, a scandal in South Korea for which Kim was apportioned outsized blame in the media, On the Beach at Night Alone is a sharply observed portrait of melancholy. Hong eschews much of his usual whimsy for a disarmingly direct exploration of the aftermath of a possibly career-ruining entanglement, gifting Kim the chance to masterfully embody the loneliness and rage of a woman no longer sure of her future.

'In a quiet, understated way, it is one of the most emotionally devastating films in Hong's rapidly expanding œuvre.' – Senses of Cinema