Berlinale 2011, day 7 (Korea is everywhere)

Go there, play the red carpet stream from 6:30 onwards, look for me. Nyahaha.
In other news: As can be seen in the aforementioned video, Berlin is actually a former German town, occupied by the fangirl battalion of South Korea. There were honestly more Koreans present than any other nationality. Two girls that stood in line before me and then sat next to me seemed to have come from Korea for this…

Saranghanda, saranghaji anneunda (Come Rain, Come Shine, ????, ???? ???)
South Korea 2011, Lee Yoon-ki, 105′

He drives her to the airport, she tells him it’s over, there’s another man. A few days later she is almost done packing, he helps her pack and invites her for a last dinner at their favourite restaurant. A lost cat breaks up the literally downcast day.

Lee Yoon-ki again (for the record: I disagree with the Queen’s review), with a breakup story! I did have high expectations for this, especially after loving My Dear Enemy even more after rewatching it. I wasn’t let down. Although the story wasn’t half as fun, it was in fact 95% pain, I enjoyed that pain very much. While I still enjoy slow movies, I have lost a lot of patience for seemingly pointless, overly long mood-making sequences, because in most cases I have the impression they are used to hide the scriptwriter’s or the director’s flaws. Not here, though: Saranghanda was easily the slowest movie I have watched this year and equally easily the one that made the best use of slow pacing. Most of the time they just shuffle about the house, doing nothing of value, saying nothing. The excellent choice of shots, the absolutely stylish house I totally fell in love with and the realisation that both Im Su-Jong and Hyun Bin are actually worthy actors made the movie a really great experience. Maybe I am connecting too much with the characters, pouring too much of my own feelings and interpretation into this, but I really felt the emotions inside them while they displayed an extremely subtle show, if at all. Also, the comparatively lively scenes with the neighbours produced a nice break of pace with great moments of Awkward. Oh facades, how great you are as a topic. On another note: I very much liked the first take of them driving to the airport, that must have been a bitch to film.
It was not perfect though: for some scenes I would have shaved a couple seconds off, or a minute here and there, asides from these very mild pacing issues however, I was thoroughly “pleased”, if you can call it that.