In Another Country

In Another Country (다른 나라에서, 2012) is an intimate drama by Hong Sang-soo, available to watch online on iFILM. Hiding from debt in the seaside town of Mohang, a bored young woman starts a screenplay — and dreams up three French women all named Anne, each arriving in turn at the same little hotel by the same beach.

Isabelle Huppert plays all three. One is a married filmmaker, the second is dodging another woman's husband, the third is nursing a divorce. They take the same room, walk the same shore, hunt for a lighthouse that keeps slipping out of reach, and keep running into the same earnest lifeguard. The words, the umbrella, the bottle of soju recur from story to story, nudged slightly off, like takes of one rehearsal.

Hong works with almost no plot: long shots, awkward chatter, a sudden zoom, and out of the repetition grows a quiet comedy about loneliness and chance. Huppert is loose and playful, as if improvising on holiday. This one rewards viewers who love slow arthouse and don't need a tidy ending. Stream In Another Country (2012) online on iFILM.