A lifeguard (Yu Jun-sang) makes the first of several offers to Anne (Isabelle Huppert) in Hong Sang-soo’s IN ANOTHER COUNTRY
IN ANOTHER COUNTRY (DA-REUN NA-RA-E-SUH) (Hong Sang-soo, 2012)
BAMcinématek, BAM Rose Cinemas
30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Pl. & St. Felix St.
Sunday, February 24, 2:00
Series runs February 22-24
718-636-4100
www.bam.org
Korean auteur Hong Sang-soo continues his fascinating exploration of cinematic narrative in In Another Country, although this one turns somewhat nasty and tiresome by the end. After being duped in a bad business deal by a family member, an older woman (Youn Yuh-jung) and her daughter, Wonju (Jung Yumi), move to the small seaside town of Mohjang, where the disenchanted Wonju decides to write a screenplay to deal with her frustration. Based on an actual experience she had, she writes three tales in which a French woman named Anne (each played by an English-speaking Isabelle Huppert) comes to the town for different reasons. In the first section, Anne is a prominent filmmaker invited by Korean director Jungsoo (Kwon Hye-hyo), who has a thing for her even though he is about to become a father with his very suspicious wife, Kumhee (Moon So-ri). In the second story, Anne, a woman married to a wealthy CEO, has come to Mohjang to continue her affair with a well-known director, Munsoo (Moon Sung-keun), who is careful that the two are not seen together in public. And in the final part, Anne, whose husband recently left her for a young Korean woman, has arrived in Mohjang with an older friend (Youn), seeking to rediscover herself. In all three stories, Anne searches for a lighthouse, as if that could shine a light on her future, and meets up with a goofy lifeguard (Yu Jun-sang) who offers the possibility of sex, but each Anne reacts in different ways to his advances. Dialogue and scenes repeat, with slight adjustments made based on the different versions of Anne, investigating character, identity, and desire both in film and in real life. Hong wrote the film specifically for Huppert, who is charming and delightful in the first two sections before turning ugly in the third as Anne suddenly becomes annoying, selfish, and irritating, the plot taking hard-to-believe twists that nearly undermine what has gone on before. As he has done in such previous films as Like You Know It All, The Day He Arrives, Tale of Cinema, and Oki’s Movie, Hong weaves together an intricate plot that is soon commenting on itself and coming together in unexpected, surreal ways, but he loses his usual taut narrative thread in the final, disappointing section. In Another Country is screening on February 24 as part of the New York Korean Film Festival at BAMcinématek, which begins February 22 with Kim Ki-Duk’s Golden Lion-winning Pieta and also includes Jo Byeong-ok’s All Bark, No Bite, Lee Suk-hoon’s Dancing Queen, Choo Chang-min’s Masquerade, Jo Sung-hee’s A Werewolf Boy, Yong-Joo Lee’s Architecture 101, and Jeong-woo Park’s Deranged. (In Another Country is also screening on February 22 at 7:00 as the final film in the Museum of the Moving Image series “Curators’ Choice: The Best of 2012” series, consisting of exemplary works from last year selected by chief curator David Schwartz and assistant film curator Rachael Rakes.)