Synopsis
A Korean immigrant falls in love with her best friend while navigating her way through the challenges of living in a new country.
In Between Days
2006 ‘방황의 날들’ Directed by So Yong Kim
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"I didn't go to film school so I have to say I learned how to make films from my husband [Bradley Rust Gray] because I worked on his crew when we were making his film in Iceland. We had a crew of four people as well so I just learned by doing. But editing was the most difficult part of the filmmaking process for me because I was making very short experimental films before I tackled this project. We shot about 66 hours of footage [for In Between Days] and that was overwhelming.
"I had so much footage and there were so many possibilities because we shot a lot of little moments and we lived with Jiseon [Kim] in the…
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Really intimate, tender and emotional - I've been meaning to check out more of So Young Kim after the wonderful Lovesong and In Between Days (there's a theme here, both have titles named after The Cure songs), is just as good - featuring a naturalistic performance by Jiseon Kim as we feel the protagonists' emotions and loneliness vibrating through the screen as she wonders about a chilly Toronto - the perfect film to watch as the temperature drops around us. There's nothing new to the coming of age genre here is the only downside - but what we get is a heartfelt, raw and memorable viewing experience all the same - focusing around a protagonist struggling to adapt to her new surroundings.
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might do an exploration of so yong kim's ouevre because every film she does is named after a cure song. just kidding (not kidding)
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In Between Days opens with an emblematic shot of its downcast teenage protagonist, Aimie (Jiseon Kim), a newly arrived immigrant from South Korea, trudging through the snow against the gloomy, if striking, backdrop of gray morning skies. Debutant feature director So Yong Kim knows how to use the weather and natural light to depict emotional states. And Aimee’s dislocation certainly goes beyond the physical.
Her relationship with her single working mother (Bokja Kim), who is possibly just as forlorn as her, is strained at best; Aimee fears that she is trying to replace her beloved father, who lives back in S. Korea. So Yong Kim’s background in experimental filmmaking makes its presence felt during the formalist tableaux of moody horizons to which Aimee’s ruminations to her absent father are set.
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Intimate and honest. A very lonely film that captures being a teenager in a foreign place very well.
The awkwardness that comes with being young and not really knowing what you want is also perfectly done here.
I picked this at random just by selecting a random category on The Criterion Channel, I'm really happy with what I got. This was great. It's short and simple, but it's very well done with some good performances. This feels like a documentary at times, and I love the scenic shots used when she's on the phone with her father, or leaving voice-mails I suppose.
Anyone who enjoyed Lovesong this is So Yong Kim's first feature and I would absolutely recommend it.
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Short, dense and unrelenting. You're inches away from the characters' faces but they are cyphers for most of the movie and it was very annoying. I really changed my mind about them well into the watch. Tran is such a jerk and I wish she'd just drop him. Mom is clueless and trusting as most moms tend to be. She is also pretty one-dimensional and I wonder if that's how Aimie sees her. The woman is clearly going through a lot of hardship that we just don't get into.
I started to like it more as it peeled off some additional layers, slowly but clearly. Rough road ahead for this girl I think... -
The Letterboxd Season Challenge 2017-18
Week 22: Mumblecore Week
A prime example of mumblecore while at the same time being atypical. Naturalistic acting, improvised dialogue, cheap production, and young lovers all situated in the mid-Aughts signifies In Between Days as mumblecore (or Dogme 95, now that I think about it); the leads, however, are about ten years younger than the usual mumblecore characters - plus, they’re not white. Aimie and Tran eke out an existence together in chilly Toronto: hanging out, tattooing each other, stealing from strangers’ cars and making it to second base. They are two of the best nonprofessional actors I’ve encountered, so comfortable in their roles that I legitimately forgot this was fiction for a minute. As quietly addictive as this film is, the ending is abrupt and left me wanting just a little bit more. I need to know what Aimie is up to......
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I need So Yong Kim to get more funding to make more Korean Canadian diaspora films like this. It's incredible how special this very simple film feels to me after having seen too many completely lackluster Asian American/Canadian stories lately. In Between Days is not a film that sets out to make any grandiose statements. It's a rather rudimentary film. But it's one of those rare ones where the rudimentary becomes more monumental for me. I profoundly connected with this as a Korean Canadian immigrant and it probably depicts my highschool life more closely than any other film out there. *spoilers There is one scene where Aimie catches her mom crying and that absolutely destroyed me.
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Having been in high school in Toronto in 2007, watching this movie was a surreal time warp experience. So much shivering in TTC shelters waiting for the bus. The dreary Toronto winter is so visceral you can feel the cold through the screen. The places they go and the way the city is portrayed resonates so strongly with me. It feels like a documentary about kids in my class at that exact time.
It also perfectly put me back in an alienated teenage headspace where every new development is unfamiliar, unpleasant territory-- and specifically into one of those weird teenage relationships where you don't know what you want or what you're doing. The almost constant close-ups are often claustrophobic and disorienting but they really keep you locked into Aimie's world. Both her and Tran's performances felt spot-on. I don't think I can review this objectively, it's too close to home-- but I really enjoyed it.
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i wanted to watch something short. what drew me in was that it's a canadian film from 2006 and the words "handheld DV" on the criterion synopsis i skimmed. was expecting this to be about ESL students for some reason, but it's more about the immigrant experience, and first love. am canadian and was a teenager at that time so it was painfully relatable. appreciated the female lead, felt a lot of empathy towards her. could also identify with her would-be boyfriend, breaking into cars, getting kicked out of your parents house, staying with girls. everybody smoking pot, partying. appreciated the intimacy of this film. on cusp of social media and smart phones. there was still intimacy, people weren't digitalized…