ABSTRACT
This essay systematically quantifies and explains how South Korean director Hong Sang-soo has constructed his mise-en-scène (the art of cinematic staging) over the course of his career, analyzing the meanings of Hong's approaches to style. In particular, two variations of Hong's shots are examined: the two-shot and the group shot, and how each respectively provides examples of mannerist and classical approaches to mise-en-scène. In order to describe and understand Hong's style in more concrete detail, the essay combines two approaches: mise-en-scène criticism and statistical style analysis, drawing on the work of Thomas Elsaesser and Warren Buckland. The goal is to increase the rigor of traditional approaches to mise-en-scène while also injecting some subjectivity back into more formal stylometry by using the insights of mise-en-scène critics such as V.F. Perkins and Adrian Martin, especially the notions of mannerist and classical mise-en-scène and how these terms apply to Hong's approach to the two-shot and the group shot, respectively. This is illustrated through specific and detailed scene analysis from Hong's films as well as statistical data on Hong and his stylistic patterns.
