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.
Review of In Another Country
