It's clear I am in a minority, but I didn't enjoy this very much.
As a plus, the basic themes of chance influences on relationships, cultural identity, and changing character over time are all of interest to me, and I did find myself reflecting on them afterwards.
I also liked to see daily life in Korea - films like this help to overcome many stereotypes that Westerners have.
The principal problem was that I didn't warm to the character of Nora - she seemed ambitious, self-centred and unempathic. Having said that, ambition can be a good thing, and it was clearly something that appealed to Hae Sung and set her apart from others in Korea. But, much as I like strong female characters, I did not find Nora likeable, which made it hard to get involved in the plot, or to be sad about the ending.
There was no chemistry between her and her husband - perhaps that was intentional, given the plot, but it seemed odd that he was so devoted to her.
I found the dialogue a bit tedious.
And some of the scenes were odd: e.g. When she turns up at a writing retreat and there's nobody there - not even a housekeeper, so she walks in and settles in to a room. Huh? And then when Arthur turns up, her first sentence, after introducing herself is to say "You got the worst room". I mean, who says something like that to a total stranger?
It also seemed hard to believe that two people who were writers could earn enough to live in New York (even in a less fancy bit of New York) - wouldn't they have to have 2nd jobs to survive, especially when starting out? Things did seem to have rather fallen into Nora's lap.
Finally, and as an indication of how weird *i* am, I could barely focus on the conversation in the fairground scene (? Coney Island) because there was a carousel in the background and the horses went round and round but did not go up and down. For a Brit this is very peculiar and against the natural order of things.
As a plus, the basic themes of chance influences on relationships, cultural identity, and changing character over time are all of interest to me, and I did find myself reflecting on them afterwards.
I also liked to see daily life in Korea - films like this help to overcome many stereotypes that Westerners have.
The principal problem was that I didn't warm to the character of Nora - she seemed ambitious, self-centred and unempathic. Having said that, ambition can be a good thing, and it was clearly something that appealed to Hae Sung and set her apart from others in Korea. But, much as I like strong female characters, I did not find Nora likeable, which made it hard to get involved in the plot, or to be sad about the ending.
There was no chemistry between her and her husband - perhaps that was intentional, given the plot, but it seemed odd that he was so devoted to her.
I found the dialogue a bit tedious.
And some of the scenes were odd: e.g. When she turns up at a writing retreat and there's nobody there - not even a housekeeper, so she walks in and settles in to a room. Huh? And then when Arthur turns up, her first sentence, after introducing herself is to say "You got the worst room". I mean, who says something like that to a total stranger?
It also seemed hard to believe that two people who were writers could earn enough to live in New York (even in a less fancy bit of New York) - wouldn't they have to have 2nd jobs to survive, especially when starting out? Things did seem to have rather fallen into Nora's lap.
Finally, and as an indication of how weird *i* am, I could barely focus on the conversation in the fairground scene (? Coney Island) because there was a carousel in the background and the horses went round and round but did not go up and down. For a Brit this is very peculiar and against the natural order of things.