This particular feature won two wards including the Competition Prize for director Chang-Dong Lee. I am aware of Lee's slow-burning style of film-making after seeing his previous film Poetry which I saw a few years ago and really enjoyed.
It starts off well with strong chemistry between our two main characters. That was more than enough for me to get invested in the story.
It develops into intriguing directions with obscure execution. The strong performances still had my interest, no matter how slow the pacing was.
But when the ending, I did feel disappointed even though I knew what was being implied and what the director was saying.
The strength of the performances by Yoo Ah-In, Jeon Jeong-Seo and Steven Yeun is what made the majority of this film extremely watchable. Yoo as the central character was easy to be sympathetic with and had a great every-day man persona that felt easily relatable.
Jeon instantly had a striking screen-presence and looked absolutely gorgeous. I liked the innocence her character had and there is one particular scene that is very hypnotic and a big scene-stealing.
Yeun is showing everyone that he is aiming to leave TV and commit to the big screen after seeing a week ago in Sorry To Bother You. The introduction of his character felt well-timed and had a constant mystery about him that made him gripping viewing.
Others things I liked about it was the cinematography and score. There are so many gorgeous wide-shots that give you a vast landscape to appreciate and many gorgeous sun-set shots.
The score fits perfectly into the mystery aspect and almost felt like something you would hear from Atticus Ross and Trent Raznor.
So as well as the mentioned problems I had with it, I liked the film for the most part. But my let-down of the pay-off gave me a bittersweet feeling once the credits rolled.
The performances were good and I liked how the tension built-up. But the over-longed duration and the somewhat disappointing ending left me frustrated of what could have been.
There is some really good aspects, plenty of content to give praise to and this film will be enjoyed by certain audiences. But it just didn't end up being the total package for me.
Rating: 7/10
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