"In a foreign country" still adheres to the style of "Xia Xia Xia" and "North Village Direction", using "play within a play", a technique that Hong Shangxiu likes very much, tells the story of a film student (Zheng Yumei) who escaped debt with his mother and went to a seaside fishing village. ) started writing the script during the boring and restless days. In her writing, three women named Anna (Isabel Huppert) came to the home port with different identities and different purposes, met the same people in the same place, and had different stories.
The technique of the play within the play cannot be considered novel, especially if it is designed to be written by a film student to write the script, it is the most trouble-free and mindless way to directly enter the "play within the play". But in Hong Sang-soo's lens, the straightforward and simplified process leaves more room for the film's imagination. After watching the entire film, you will find that this approach is the most effective and suitable for this film, and it is most in line with Hong Sangxiu's experimental style that has never cared much about mainstream narratives.
The most well-known Korean director in the international film industry is very good at exploring and expressing the subtle emotions of the characters. Three short stories are about to be told, about desires, about Zen Buddhism, and about the simple collision of complex relationships between people. , but it all ends when the last layer of window paper remains. The structure of the film seems simple and random, but it has a clever illogical beauty. Like a painting by an aura painter, it is simple, interesting and full of talent. In the second story, there are repeated clips without any clip marks, just like graffiti, redrawing when dissatisfied. There are no rules and restrictions, only a wonderful artistic charm. Perhaps Hong Sang-soo's films are not deep enough, but they don't have to be master works. The director likes to shoot Xiaoqingqing, it looks good, and some people like to watch it. Just fine.
"In a foreign country" also attracted attention because of the joining of French actress and two-time Cannes actress Isabelle Huppert. A lot of people were looking forward to her three braces (Huppert also has a role in another French competition film "Love"), but now it seems that despite his three very different characters in the film Women with their own characteristics, but neither the difficulty nor the personal charm of the characters have the appearance of the best actress. But I have to admit that Yu Peier is really a woman forgotten by time. Almost all the three beauties with different temperaments in the film appeared without makeup, which made the three male characters fascinated. Who would have thought that this French baby is actually nearly sixty years old!
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