Moonlit Winter

Photography, lighting is very beautiful beautiful (especially several snow heaven and earth and indoor arrangement), but the film isn't label her piece, the body is not her mood ji yao, really rare to see such not dog blood clean finished a story of Korean movie, love between women as white as snow and ice crystal and quiet in heart, saw for the first time.

A tea cozy movie about a mother's unhappiness and her feisty teenage daughter's quest to learn more about her mother and help her come to terms with repressed desires and memories, during a trip to Japan. This is a slow-paced and subtle movie about forbidden love and societal pressures but it never gets boring. I really liked the chemistry between the mother and daughter, how she tries to gently challenge her mother's social isolation. The cinematography is also quite nice, I like the contrast between the warmth of the characters (the young couple in particular) and the cold winter landscapes of Hokkaido. I hope Kim Sohye (who plays the daughter) gets more movie roles in the future, she is a natural in many ways.

" Moonlit Winter " or full moon, was a nice movie.

The drama was just enough and the character interesting. Especially the daughter, she was feisty and just the perfect partner for her mother, who was dynamic, but pretty closed to herself. The movie did a nice job with keeping things interesting, however, even though the idea of the story was original and very emotional, it felt like it wasn't well presented. At times, it got a bit confusing and it would have been better, in my opinion, if they had given us some information about their past relationship, or some scenes from the past, as to built a better intensity for the couple. The performances though were very good, and the young couple extra cute.

So, overall, six out of ten, because the story deserved a better presentation.

If you watch something smooth and slow with much romance style, this is the one. This also seen as another backed by Korean government promoted films. There is not much story but it emphasized on humans slow and nonconfidence is doing something that is difficult or lost will. However, if the director can add more thrills, it will be better.

I watched this movie because I am a fan of the Korean band Se So Neon who did the song Winter on the movie's OST. The video for the song gives you a good sense of the movie itself. Although the plot isn't overly dramatic and there wasn't a lot of tension, I felt that the actors made me care about them and there is just enough plot to get to know what motivates them. A lot of emotions is shown through expression rather than through talking which is something that I appreciate in Asian films.

I recently watched two other Korean movies with female protagonists House of Hummingbird and Kim Ji-young: Born 1982. There is one thread that seems to run through them all and that is Korea's cultural view of women. In all 3 of these movies there was mention or implication that the boy's in the family were the most revered among the siblings. It's maybe more examined in the two other movies I mentioned but it is something that had affected the mother in this story when she was a teenager. I have been living in Korea for a number of years and often wonder if that male centered ideology is changing with the new generations having kids of their own. I hope so.