In Another Country

Do Western audiences still laugh less in Hong Sangsoo films than Korean audiences? In Another Country, Hong’s idiosyncratic vehicle for Isabelle Huppert, might just be the movie which closes that gap. Koreans tend to laugh-out-loud, ruefully recognizing the accuracy of the way he shows men and women lying to themselves and each other, especially when they’re after sex. Western audiences have generally been more restrained, not least those in Vancouver who recall his debut The Day a Pig Fell into the Well (VIFF 96), which won our D&T Award, but wasn’t so humorous.

This time Hong offers three distinct but oddly homogenous stories, dreamed up by a young woman holed up with her mother to escape their creditors. Huppert plays three French women, all called Anne and all spending a day away from Seoul in the boring beach resort of Mohang. In the first, she’s a film director (clearly based on Claire Denis) taking a break with friends; then she’s a married woman having a secret affair with a Korean director; and finally she’s a divorcee looking for answers and adventures. The three Annes all meet the charming local lifeguard (Yu Junsang) and experience various alternate possibilities: finding (or not finding) the lighthouse, getting (or not getting) laid. Liberated from Haneke, Huppert shines. And Hong has the time of his life.

— Tony Rayns