Following Things That I Learn From You (2016) and It’s Not Over Yet (2018), this is the third in a loose trilogy of films that trace the meandering journey and sometimes fraying friendship of musical duet J and Joy 20. Middle-aged singer Yu Jun-sang (writer/director Yu Jun-sang) and much younger guitarist Lee Jun-hwa head to Japan on a whim (everything here is whimsical) to shoot a video for their latest (unfinished) song, at a time when the pair’s working and personal relationship is in flux.

This metacinematic making-of film shows both the music video and Spring Song itself gradually taking shape from Jun-sang’s apparently arbitrary ideas. It is also a deadpan joy from start to finish, with a rich layer of underlying melancholy, as what seems very simple is full of slyly sophisticated self-referentiality, while calmly addressing the ravages of change.