Da-reun na-ra-e-suh, In another country, the title in english, is the last movie of cult Korean writer-director Hong Sangsoo. Usually I do not write reviews about movies. But, yes, I met him at the German Premiere tonight, at the Arsenal Kino in Postamer Platz. After a long cue I took the last ticket, without reservation.
He told me basically two things: he likes the rain, sometimes, and he likes to walk in the middle of the street, sometimes. Exactly like his character, the wonderful Isabelle Huppert playing the role of Anne, a french woman visiting a small costal resort in South Korean. The most awful place in the world to go on holiday.
in Another country, which is of course in South-Korea, everything is so realistic. A kind of new Far East Neorealism. Because of that no tight really special is happening. The woman, Anne, is waiting is man. But he doesn’t come. He has an affair with another woman and Anne, who knows that, spends all the days (one or one hundred, doesn’t make any difference) alone, drinking bottles and bottles of Heuk Ju, the typical South Korean wine.
She is looking for the Lighthouse (there is one for sure in that place, but nobody knows where it is) but instead of it she is meeting corean people: The young lifeguard who likes her and he is always swimming in the cold sea, acting like the typical kind asian guys who meets somebody from the western world: kind gestures, bad english. Or the young assistant who is always lending umbrellas. The jealous pregnant woman and her sinner husband, the Buddhist Monks and his Mont Blanc pen, the unkind old mother-in-law and her mobile. But Anne is alone and, raining or not, she is always wearing nice dresses. In a circular way.