In Another Country

Dareun Narayeseo

Hong Sangsoo plus Isabelle Huppert plus Yu Junsang equals three separate – but oddly overlapping – stories about a Frenchwoman visiting a dull Korean seaside resort.

Even if a screening is sold out, tickets are often available 30 minutes before the start of the film at the box office at each venue.


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  • Director-Screenwriter Hong Sangsoo
  • Producer Kim Kyounghee
  • With Isabelle Huppert, Yu Junsang, Jung Yumi
  • South Korea 2012
  • 89 mins
  • Sales Finecut

Koreans tend to laugh-out-loud during Hong Sangsoo films, recognising the accuracy of the way he shows men and women lying to themselves and each other, especially when they’re after sex. Western audiences are usually more restrained, but Hong’s idiosyncratic vehicle for Isabelle Huppert might just change that. In three distinct but oddly homogenous stories Huppert plays three French women, all called Anne and all spending a day away from Seoul in the boring beach resort of Mohang. In one, she’s a film director (clearly based on Claire Denis) taking a break with friends; in the next she’s a married woman having a secret affair with a Korean director; in the last she’s a divorcee looking for answers and adventures. In all three, she meets the charming local lifeguard; in one, she sleeps with him. Liberated from Haneke, Huppert shines. And Hong has the time of his life.

Tony Rayns