Nonureva Really Surprised!

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Ogosmith Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Cassandra Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

lchadbou-326-26592 A group of us in San Francisco who call ourselves Cinema Snobs watch a hopefully unusual movie monthly on video, and yesterday's showing of In Another Country was one of our best. Some of us had also seen a half dozen or so of Hong Sang Soo's earlier works when they were presented in 2007 at the Asian American Film Festival.The obvious point to be made, after seeing even just one of his,is that they work on little variations of elements that are repeated from movie to movie and also within the separate parts of each movie. Sometimes just the slightest variation can offer the appreciative viewer a thrill of excitement at the change. The downside, as in some of his more recent efforts, is that the repetition can become annoying.I also found his earlier ones had a greater visual richness: a sense of color, composition and depth of field that the later ones seemed to eschew in favor of erratic zooming, use of digital instead of celluloid, and even a misguided attempt (in The Day He Arrives) at fake black and white, So it is good that Hong at least with this one seems to have returned to shooting on film and to some of his more graceful early work. It is also a welcome addition to the mix to include a foreign character (Huppert) with the various misunderstandings that can come from people, who are already having trouble communicating, not being able to understand each others' languages. I recommend In Another Country for those who have never seen a Hong Sang Soo as an enjoyable introduction.

jackshrack The film, while showing promise and alluding to something more than appears on the surface, was quite monotonous to me. I have to say that the acting and direction seemed at times quite amateur. It left me with a feeling of dissatisfaction. As someone said the director is interested in a minimalistic approach to conveying a story and I imagine that he succeeded. It felt more like a rough sketch than a film. In fact it felt to me like 3 short films. Nevertheless, there was something intangible in the characters, something allusive. Again the minimalism lends itself to an ambiguity. Personally, I like ambiguity to a degree but this film was more like a line drawing than a painting. The opening in fact sets the tone for the film. The music that the director chooses, the credits and the acting all give you that feeling that you are not watching real human beings fleshed out but character studies.

eraserdead After being impressed with all of the works I've seen from Korean director Sang-Soo Hong I am sad to say that this disappointed me. As much as I appreciate his minimalistic approach to filmmaking I think that, after seeing the same techniques used in four consecutive films, his style is waning on me. Despite that, I did enjoy the plot and it's always interesting to see how Hong approaches filmmaker characters – in this case a female. An impressive performance from Isabelle Huppert too who seems to be doing just about anything she's given.Hong displays the same themes as he always does: relationships, infidelity and alcoholism – and there are no qualms from me in terms of his improvisational skills when it comes to screenplays. In typical style for the filmmaker he repeats scenes, dialogue, characters and locations but this time there is a plot point that elevates the repetition – in actuality this is a film about a film and we see the scenes acted out as the female filmmaker character puts her self into her work.Overall it is a good film but, as I mentioned before, I was disappointed simply because his techniques are beginning to become a little tiresome.

Mozjoukine Isabelle Huppert is having a great time making movies, taking on any kind of oddity they push at her. It's a bit rough on her fans, who get stuck with items like this and CACTUS but I suppose you take the rough with the smooth.A Korean girl facing a crisis sets down to write a script in which Huppert appears as "the French Woman." Now you can't complain about mis-casting. Complete with the sound of typing (thank you Twilight Zone) she puts our heroine into three different scenarios set in the so nice timber beach front home, where she encounters the same characters in different arrangements, looking for a light house, losing an umbrella and getting amorously involved with the men. Kind of precious.The material is presented in sharp, subdued colour with minimal editing. It's not worth it's star's time or the viewer's.