Released this week, Hong Sang-Soo’s drama “In Water” has a press average of 3.6 out of 5 (on AlloCiné, for 13 reviews, as of June 28).
One year later Nowadays…, the very prolific Korean filmmaker Hong Sang-Soo returns with In Water, a melancholy and poetic film starring Shin Seokho, Ha Seong Guk and Seung Yun Kim. Released this week in our cinemas, this 1h01 drama was well received by the French press, since its average is 3.6 out of 5.
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What is it about ?
On the rocky island of Jeju, a young actor is making a film. When he lacks inspiration, he sees a silhouette at the foot of a cliff. Thanks to this meeting and a love song written years earlier, he finally has a story to tell.
What the press thinks:
According to Cahiers du Cinéma:
“An aesthetic revelation then occurs that only Branca de neve by Monteiro or The Atlantic Man by Duras had achieved in narrative cinema.” By Fernando Ganzo – 5/5
According to Les Inrockuptibles:
“In Water freezes here with as much clairvoyance as gentleness this cruel contradiction of the creator invaded by obsessive images, which stir in his head, while being incapable of reproducing them perfectly.” By Ludovic Béot – 5/5
According to Critikat.com:
“The generalized blur does not aim to transcribe a precise sensation, but rather represents a certain being in the world – that of an aesthetic distancing which aims to enjoy forms, lights and colors.” By Robin Vaz – 4/5
According to Les Fiches du Cinéma:
“An impressionist canvas coupled with a reflection as poetic as it is melancholic on artistic blur, Hong Sangsoo’s new stroll disconcerts, then upsets.” By Simon Hoareau – 4/5
At the cinema on June 26, these are the films to see: The Hennedricks Family with Dany Boon, The Count of Monte Cristo with Pierre Niney…
According to Libération:
“In this seaside and landscape film, the most successful part of the proposal lies in the capture of small animated seascapes (as they are called in painting), which exude a quite poignant nostalgic sweetness.” By Laura Tuillier – 4/5
According to aVoir-aLire.com:
“This mise en abyme of cinema within cinema, dear to the prolific work of Hong Sang-Soo, reveals the director’s sensitive taste for Cézanne’s painting. In Water is a little gem of poetry on human emptiness and the artists’ lack of inspiration.” By Laurent Cambon – 4/5
According to Télérama:
“In Water is reduced a little too much to this theoretical game, unfolding a monotonous story, where the audacity of the flouted clarity is revealed to be almost timid in relation to the pictorial stake that it could involve. The watercolor offers, sometimes, the brilliance of a red parasol and a bush of yellow flowers, but the formal pleasure remains, moreover, limited.” By Jacques Morice – 2/5
According to L’Obs:
“To over-signify his graceful screenplay, Hong Sang-soo refuses to take stock and films everything in a blur that is certainly symbolic, but above all uncomfortable.” By Xavier Leherpeur – 1/5
