Na Praia à Noite Sozinha

Was it entertaining? No. But it was a hell of a good movie. It is worth watching. The silence is powerful and I thoroughly am grateful that I watched trough it. I really do recommend it for anybody who is maybe feeling empty or lonely. If you have free time or enjoy this sort of cinematic movies you should watch it.

It isn't captivating or like the most popular mass production media, it simply holds you there.

The long shots after leaving a scene, it makes you feel like you walked into another persons life for a split second.

Watch this movie. I'm almost in tears after it ended.

Don't watch it when you are looking for time passing, watch it with intent. Because I promise you if you don't you will drop the movie during the first 13 minutes, you need to watch it from the beginning-to the end. It's not like regular movies, I'd say it's more like a...documentary? A piece of someone's life. You can't drop out, push trough it.

I know it sound strange but it's an experience, but in a new way.

I think it's worth mentioning that the movie is not like it looks on the paper, it is not colorful, it is simple.

I knew nothing going into this, and perhaps that's why its sensitivity and its meticulous pacing really surprised and impressed me. Visually the film looks simple, yet it's very elegantly shot. The screenplay, in particular the intimate dialogue between characters, is fantastic. The biggest strength of the film is Min-hee Kim. She has such an ethereal quality to the way she performs, expressing the dialogue in such a natural, realistic way. The film isn't standard entertainment fare, but it sure is strong.

Korean movie star, Young-hee played with some fire by Min-hee Kim has an affair with a married director.

She seems to be rather lost as the affair ends as she vacations in Hamburg Germany. As the film progresses she goes about with her friends back in South Korea to pick up the pieces.

The film is strictly a stream of conciousnous story with Young-hee coming off the breakup with a very sharp tongue and demeaner. There are many conversations and Young-hee and the director do finally meet in the movie, but it's bittersweet.

At times she begins to rant, she's very angry, but I didn't see the film as most reviewed it, I don't think it was about the director. I see him only as a catalyst to Young-hee who questions have outstripped her answers.

In the end I believe it was more her doing than his. He seemed to have been caught in her vortex. She feels lost but at that edge is something far more. Outside of common reason, she'll have to find her way back if that's her intention.

This isn't a movie that most would jump for, be sure you enjoy a more sedate and introspective film before jumping in.

Mostly talk and ideas.

5 out of 10

Neat to see a Korean woman in film with large questions and serious results.

I have to start with the idea that this is definitely (not even close) to an easy-watch movie. There are a lot of large scenes that are basically just people having a conversation, this is not a movie for everyone.

But, if you´re looking for an introspecting kind of movie, this is the one. We have a bunch of idea of what is love about, if there are people "qualified" to love and all those kind of thoughts.

Is really interesting if you want to have a different perspective about a hard way to love or felling lonely, but sometimes the scene is so long that you lose interest.

Hong Sang-soo's visually astounding piece of cinema has the potential to turn into a sleep-fest for many viewers who are not used to extended sequences of silence and a lingering, loitering focus of the cameras on sombre landscapes and city streets. But those who possess a keen eye for the subtle meaning of cinema will find in these visual depictions a gentle erosion of love and a growing, rebelling, unstable acceptance.

The film depicts a young actress in Young-hee (Kim Min-hee) as she meanders along parks and pathways of foreign cities, has coffee in countryside restaurants with old friends and desperately tries to find for herself a hotel out at sea where she could spend some time letting go of her erratic, volatile longing for a recent lover.

Sang-soo lets his landscapes blend in naturally and does not resort much to color grading thus making it very difficult for viewers to not connect with the journey and emotions of the protagonist. We can feel Young-hee's admiration of the quietude in her sombre, spiritual walks in the park and her excitement on beholding the frozen lake. We can experience her detachment and withdrawal to her friends' lives and words as her resonance with generally accepted notions of love gradually fades away. We can accompany her in her dreams as she sleeps carefree on the beach drowning herself in the gentle snore of the sea.

A profound movie that in itself is a dissection of the breakdown of love and attachment.