In Between Days
Studio: Kino International
Rated: NOT RATED
Release Date: 2007-11-29
WorkNameSort: In Between Days
The first narrative feature from South Korean émigré So Yong Kim, In Between Days is an endearing movie about youth. Set in the Korean community of an unnamed North American city, the film quietly studies the relationship between two platonic friends (Jiseon Kim and nonactor Taegu Andy Kang) and their awkward sexual awakenings. They idly flirt with potential rivals while trying to ignore the omnipresent sexual tension between them, leaving their relationship and the movie’s narrative, like life, messily unresolved. Thanks to Kim’s patient direction, there’s a lot said in the movie’s unspoken conversation gaps, creating a vérité sense of authentic discomfort. The frosty winter settings and general feeling of outsider malaise that Jiseon Kim’s Aimie finds in her largely English-speaking peers add more texture to this remarkable mood piece. Akin to Unknown Pleasures, another profound youth film Kim mentions as an influence in the supplementary interview, In Between Days is a wise and beautiful study of yearning and repression.
This article appears in Nov 28 – Dec 4, 2007.