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[HanCinema's Film Review] "In Another Country"

Hong Sang-soo films always have a strong meta-narrative. The characters in his stories think they're living their lives according to some grand design, and so consequently have no idea how childish and foolish their attempts to live these fantasies actually look. Typically this is all just subtext- "In Another Country" takes the curious step of explicitly being a story about a story. Almost the entirity of the film is just in the imagination of Won-joo (played by Jung Yu-mi), a young woman trying to write a story that's true to life.

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Appreciating this film requires some understanding of the fictional writing process. Authors often claim that characters come to them fully formed. Indeed, it's common to hear them say that the direction of the story surprises them. Even though they created the characters, an author doesn't really control them, if that makes any sense. In order to get the correct result for the story, the author has to set up the scenario in such a way that the characters can react to it meaningfully. Otherwise the action comes off as forced, and the characters themselves just sounds like bitter mouthpieces for the author.

This is the meta-conflict that defines "In Another Country". Every story features the same basic cast of characters with the same personalities. But Won-Joo, in an effort to make the story fit the agenda she has, messes around with the background until finally she's able to create the naturalistic ending she wants. However, the fact that we see two failed versions prior to the final one in some sense ruins the journey. Now that we know what Won-joo was trying to do, the story feels unbelievable even though the characters are acting in a perfectly reasonable way considering how their personalities are defined.

Essentially, if you've ever had a writer friend refuse to share a work in progress, this is why. Won-joo has concretely formed opinions concerning foreign women and Korean men. Sometimes characters will say what Won-joo is thinking in an explicit effort to drive this point home. The repetition in the three stories makes moments like this all too clear, such that by the end it's difficult to see this as a story about anything except Won-joo's prejudices and recurring flaws as a writer.

However, for anyone who's watched another Hong Sang-soo film...the kind of people these characters are rings very true. They are sad pathetic souls desperate for someone else to boost their self-esteem. Granted, Won-joo messes around with the scenario, altering the degrees to which the characters need these ego boosts in order to get them to naturalistically react in the correct way. But in this sense she seems less like a manipulator of events than an exposer of how fluid definitions of pathetic behavior can be depending on how badly the receiving person wants attention.

"In Another Country" is, suffice to say, an extremely complicated narrative. The extremely slow, deliberate and introspective pace makes it feel like a much longer movie even though the runtime is under ninety minutes. It begs a lot of questions about the creative process, and proves a surprisingly sharp reminder that storytellers are far from infallible. It's almost like Hong Sang-soo is parodying his own filmography here. It's weird stuff- entertaining to be sure, yet with sharp underscoring that's easy to miss.

Review by William Schwartz

"In Another Country" is directed by Hong Sang-soo and features Isabelle Huppert, Yu Jun-sang and Jung Yu-mi.

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