# In Front of Your Face (당신 얼굴 앞에서)
**In Front of Your Face** (당신 얼굴 앞에서, *Dangsin-eolgul-apeseo*) is a 2021 South Korean drama film written, directed, shot, edited, and scored by [Hong Sang-soo](https://www.edgepedia.org/hong-sang-soo), his 26th feature. It follows Sangok, a former actress who returns to Seoul after years in the United States and spends a day with her sister and a film director while concealing a terminal diagnosis. The film premiered in the Cannes Premiere section at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival and was distributed in North America by Cinema Guild.[1](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/2021/in-front-of-your-face-melancholic-wanderings-in-the-back-alleys-of-seoul/) • [2](https://www.cinemaguild.com/theatrical/downloads/infrontofyourface/press.pdf)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director | Hong Sang-soo, credited as writer, director, producer, cinematographer, editor, and composer; his 26th feature[2](https://www.cinemaguild.com/theatrical/downloads/infrontofyourface/press.pdf) • [3](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/front-your-face-poignant-evocation-everyday-beauty) |
| Premiere | Cannes Premiere section, 2021 Cannes Film Festival; Hong's 11th film at Cannes[1](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/2021/in-front-of-your-face-melancholic-wanderings-in-the-back-alleys-of-seoul/) • [4](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/in-front-of-your-face-beauty-impermanent-immediacy-hong-sangsoo) |
| Cast | Lee Hye-young (Sangok), Cho Yun-hee (Jeongok), Kwon Hae-hyo (Jaewon), Shin Seok-ho (Seungwon)[2](https://www.cinemaguild.com/theatrical/downloads/infrontofyourface/press.pdf) |
| Runtime | 85 minutes per the distributor and festival listings; 86 minutes per JustWatch and the Korean Film Archive[2](https://www.cinemaguild.com/theatrical/downloads/infrontofyourface/press.pdf) • [5](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/in-front-of-your-face) • [6](https://www.koreafilm.or.kr/movie/PM_010454) |
| South Korean release | October 21, 2021; 69 screens, 5,306 admissions, $34,792 gross[7](https://www.koreanfilm.or.kr/eng/films/index/filmsView.jsp?movieCd=20210388) |
| Reception | 95% on Rotten Tomatoes (36 fresh, 2 rotten); 6.9 on IMDb[8](https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/in-front-of-your-face/umc.cmc.3kf0twma0wbly4ng6l93n0d89) |
| Awards | Best Actress for Lee Hye-young (International Cinephile Society); Special Jury Award, Gijón Film Festival[2](https://www.cinemaguild.com/theatrical/downloads/infrontofyourface/press.pdf) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
Sangok (Lee Hye-young), a middle-aged former actress who left for the United States years earlier, has returned to Seoul and is staying with her sister Jeongok (Cho Yun-hee) in her high-rise apartment. The siblings sleep late, have breakfast at a cafe, and visit the restaurant of Jeongok's son Seungwon (Shin Seok-ho). As the day's small events accumulate, including a spill on Sangok's blouse and a visit to her childhood home, it becomes clear that she is keeping something to herself, and that it bears on her decision to meet the film director Jaewon (Kwon Hae-hyo), who admired her work in an old film and wants to cast her.[2](https://www.cinemaguild.com/theatrical/downloads/infrontofyourface/press.pdf) • [9](https://www.nziff.co.nz/2021/archive/in-front-of-your-face/)
The secret is her health. Sangok discloses to Jaewon that she has five or six months left to live, which explains why the soup stain on her blouse has ceased to matter to her.[4](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/in-front-of-your-face-beauty-impermanent-immediacy-hong-sangsoo) Richard Brody, film critic at *The New Yorker*, notes that Hong signals the illness in the very first scene, when Sangok gently clutches her stomach in pain, and that Jeongok, unaware her sister is dying, even encourages her to buy an apartment nearby.[10](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-front-row/in-front-of-your-face-reviewed-the-great-hong-sangsoo-reaches-new-heights) The two meet in a bar named Novel in downtown Seoul, drink, and talk as sudden rain falls; Jaewon proposes a feature that would mark her return to the screen, then cancels a proposed short film the next morning.[5](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/in-front-of-your-face) • [4](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/in-front-of-your-face-beauty-impermanent-immediacy-hong-sangsoo)
## Production and style
Hong Sang-soo, born in Seoul in 1960, made his first feature in 1996 and teaches at [Konkuk University](https://www.edgepedia.org/konkuk-university); on this film he is credited with the screenplay, direction, production, cinematography, editing, and music, with Kim Min-hee as production manager and Seo Ji-hoon handling sound.[2](https://www.cinemaguild.com/theatrical/downloads/infrontofyourface/press.pdf) The film was shot in a few extended takes, mainly in bars and cafes, with long dialogue scenes punctuated by zooms and Sangok's recurring voiceover prayers, such as "Everything I see before me is grace. There is no tomorrow. No yesterday, no tomorrow. But this moment right now is paradise."[4](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/in-front-of-your-face-beauty-impermanent-immediacy-hong-sangsoo) • [3](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/front-your-face-poignant-evocation-everyday-beauty)
Thomas Flew, reviewing in the [British Film Institute](https://www.edgepedia.org/british-film-institute)'s *Sight and Sound*, counts eight scenes in seven locations over 24 hours, and places the film in Hong's cumulative project of small-scale sketches with recurrent themes and character types. He also notes two departures from Hong's usual patterns: the characters drink Chinese liquor rather than soju, and the story is unusually linear for a director known for fragmented, non-chronological structures.[3](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/front-your-face-poignant-evocation-everyday-beauty) • [11](https://icsfilm.org/reviews/cannes-2021-review-in-front-of-your-face-hong-sang-soo/) Lee Hye-young, a prominent theater and screen actress in South Korea who had rarely acted in the previous decade, appears in a Hong film for the first time.[2](https://www.cinemaguild.com/theatrical/downloads/infrontofyourface/press.pdf) • [9](https://www.nziff.co.nz/2021/archive/in-front-of-your-face/)
## Release and reception
The film premiered at Cannes in July 2021 and screened at the New York, Busan, Mar del Plata, and Vancouver festivals and at Viennale that year.[1](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/2021/in-front-of-your-face-melancholic-wanderings-in-the-back-alleys-of-seoul/) • [2](https://www.cinemaguild.com/theatrical/downloads/infrontofyourface/press.pdf) In South Korea it opened on October 21, 2021 on 69 screens and sold 5,306 admissions for a gross of $34,792.[7](https://www.koreanfilm.or.kr/eng/films/index/filmsView.jsp?movieCd=20210388) Cinema Guild gave it a limited North American theatrical release beginning May 6, 2022.[10](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-front-row/in-front-of-your-face-reviewed-the-great-hong-sangsoo-reaches-new-heights) • [2](https://www.cinemaguild.com/theatrical/downloads/infrontofyourface/press.pdf)
Critics responded to the film's treatment of mortality through ordinary detail. Becca Voelcker in *Sight and Sound* called it a love letter to Seoul and a character study of one woman facing death with presence of mind, noting that even a soup stain becomes inconsequential once the diagnosis is known.[4](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/in-front-of-your-face-beauty-impermanent-immediacy-hong-sangsoo) Brody wrote that Hong uses Sangok's internal monologue, prayers without religion or God, to sharp effect, and that her spiritual quest is also an aesthetic one of staying focused on the present.[10](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-front-row/in-front-of-your-face-reviewed-the-great-hong-sangsoo-reaches-new-heights) The review in the International Cinephile Society's journal observed that Hong had never dealt with religion and mortality as directly as he does here, while keeping the film quietly philosophical rather than overtly religious.[11](https://icsfilm.org/reviews/cannes-2021-review-in-front-of-your-face-hong-sang-soo/) On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes the film holds 95 percent, with 36 fresh and 2 rotten reviews.[8](https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/in-front-of-your-face/umc.cmc.3kf0twma0wbly4ng6l93n0d89)
## Themes
The title points to the film's central idea. Sangok strives to avoid thoughts of the past and future in order to see what is in front of her face, because, as she says, that is where heaven is hiding.[10](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-front-row/in-front-of-your-face-reviewed-the-great-hong-sangsoo-reaches-new-heights) The London Korean Film Festival program reads the title as referring both to the many one-on-one dialogue scenes and to something hidden in plain sight.[12](https://www.koreanfilm.co.uk/films/in-front-of-your-face/) A flashback explains the outlook: years earlier, passing [Seoul Station](https://www.edgepedia.org/seoul-station) during an episode of wanting to die, Sangok found the faces of strangers in the crowd so beautiful she decided not to die that day.[4](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/in-front-of-your-face-beauty-impermanent-immediacy-hong-sangsoo) The film's grave subject is lightened by Sangok's laughter, which several festival programs describe as life-affirming.[12](https://www.koreanfilm.co.uk/films/in-front-of-your-face/)
## References
1. [In Front of your Face, Melancholic Wanderings in the Back Alleys of Seoul, Festival de Cannes](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/2021/in-front-of-your-face-melancholic-wanderings-in-the-back-alleys-of-seoul/)
2. [In Front of Your Face press kit, The Cinema Guild](https://www.cinemaguild.com/theatrical/downloads/infrontofyourface/press.pdf)
3. [In Front of Your Face: a poignant evocation of everyday beauty, Sight and Sound (Thomas Flew)](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/front-your-face-poignant-evocation-everyday-beauty)
4. [In Front of Your Face finds beauty in its impermanent immediacy, Sight and Sound (Becca Voelcker)](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/in-front-of-your-face-beauty-impermanent-immediacy-hong-sangsoo)
5. [In Front of Your Face streaming: where to watch online?, JustWatch](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/in-front-of-your-face)
6. [당신 얼굴 앞에서, 시네마테크KOFA, 한국영상자료원](https://www.koreafilm.or.kr/movie/PM_010454)
7. [In Front of Your Face (2021), Korean Film Council database](https://www.koreanfilm.or.kr/eng/films/index/filmsView.jsp?movieCd=20210388)
8. [In Front of Your Face, Apple TV](https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/in-front-of-your-face/umc.cmc.3kf0twma0wbly4ng6l93n0d89)
9. [In Front of Your Face, New Zealand International Film Festival 2021](https://www.nziff.co.nz/2021/archive/in-front-of-your-face/)
10. ["In Front of Your Face," Reviewed: The Great Hong Sangsoo Reaches New Heights, The New Yorker (Richard Brody)](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-front-row/in-front-of-your-face-reviewed-the-great-hong-sangsoo-reaches-new-heights)
11. [Cannes 2021 review: In Front of Your Face (Hong Sang-soo), International Cinephile Society](https://icsfilm.org/reviews/cannes-2021-review-in-front-of-your-face-hong-sang-soo/)
12. [In Front of Your Face, London Korean Film Festival](https://www.koreanfilm.co.uk/films/in-front-of-your-face/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 2020 to 2022*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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