Moonlit Winter

This movie really reminded me of the film Carol, and I literally loved it so much. It's overall pretty chill and slow paced, but it just portrayed winter very well in the film (it's one of those movies i'll be looking for on a winter morning). I also loved this film because it didn't over sexualize queer women relationships, but covered the topic pretty well. 100% recommended!!

Director Im Dae-Hyung skillfully crafted this visual vignette of a woman haunted by time and regret and revisiting her pieces of the past to her journey of acceptance.

Although labeled as "romance", it is not the raison d'être of this film, but the plot does root from unresolved love that will aid them to their present self. I truly believe that this film is a sincere ode to freeing one's self of things that could have been but did not.

Characters were beautifully written and told. They were carefully separated with their own story then, collaborated in quite a climactic fashion and I would not have wanted it any other way.

Its screenplay stood out the most for me as it was neither vague nor shallow, and presented the story and its characters' sentiments with justice.

This film is a hidden gem, underrated perhaps. Slow but definitely not one to bore.

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.

Kim Hee Ae who is my admired idol pulls me to this movie. After watching this movie, it brings me some emotions that I need to share it. First, obviously I love the way of Kim Hee Ae acting. She always knows how to play the role truly and honestly. From my perspective, she might be an actress who plays many Korean dramas but keeps the character's soul distinctly and uniquely. People can't have a sense of similarity if she plays a certain role. Second, I'm quite impressed with the way of telling a story from the director. This movie is about lesbian romantic and it's really hard or unnatural expression if you don't know how to tell it subtly. No need sexual, erotic or hot scene, but the movie still keep me finish till an end because of its smooth, soothing and emotional story. Such a good movie to watch if you need to slowly calm down in a hurry world.

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.