Suyoocheon

The English title "By the River" is quite misleading, the stream turns out to by a mere brook, or better a kind of canal, build for heavy rainfalls but not much to see in dry times. The same can be said about the film itself. The three protagonists don't carry much water either unless provoked by others. None of them seems to have strong feelings about anything or important aims in their life. They float around themselves as in a kind of dance. We hear a lot of small talk and asian politeness and it takes awhile till we hear what the story is all about. Sadly, the one really emotionally charged moment is soon over and we hear almost nothing of what follows up. Most of the time we see people eating and drinking, aspecially drinking. There is one play acted out with students in the film and that is a very good relection of the whole story. One is forced to have a lot of patience since there is only little development and not all questions do get answered.