After skipping out on Day Three of the Los Angeles Film Festival to catch up with some Father’s Day activities, we are now back with our continued coverage of the fest with the Day Four Wrap-Up! We caught three foreign films today, My Dear Enemy from South Korea, Turistas from Chile, and Still Walking from Japan. One of those films is considered the best of the fest so far, so read on to find out which one it is!

My Dear Enemy (Meozzin Haru)
Dir: Lee Yoon-ki
Cast: Jeon Do-youn, Ha Jung-woo
Remaining LAFF Showtimes: N/A
Logline: When the tightly wound Hee-su demands that her former lover Byeong-woon repay a long-standing debt, he happily agrees, setting in motion this understated comedy from director Lee Yoon-ki. Refusing to let Byeong-woon out of her sight, Hee-su insists on accompanying him as he calls in a variety of favors—mostly from women—in order to repay her. As the two embark on a daytrip through Seoul and their own rocky history, they come to realize that sometimes the most interesting time in a relationship is after it’s over.
Review: Director Lee Yoon-ki brings us a sweet and restrained comedy about settling up, with two terrific performances by leads Jeon Do-yeon (who won best actress at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival for her role in Secret Sunshine) and Ha Jung-woo. The story revolves around the day spent between two ex-lovers as Hee-su attempts to force Byeong-woon to repay a sizeable debt that he’s owed her for more than a year. The carefree and somewhat dead-beat Byeong-woon doesn’t have sufficient funds on him to pay Hee-su when she surprises him at the racetrack, and the rightfully distrusting Hee-su won’t accept another I.O.U. either. So, the two are forced together as they drive up and down the city, where Byeong-woon calls in every favor he has to raise enough money to pay her back. As Hee-su encounters his mostly-female benefactors, she begins to see a side of Byeong-woon that she never knew – a side that’s kind, charming, and caring enough to have so many women willing to come to bat for him.
Lee conciously makes an effort to avoid slipping into typical slapstick romantic comedy territory, and instead employs a downplayed sensibility to draw his laughs. The awkward relationship baggage and day-night juxtapositions of Byeong-woon and Hee-su’s personalities create several instances of hilarity and amusement. There’s no point in the movie where you’re choking back sobs of laughter, but is instead filled with an even spread of chuckle-worthy moments. The film is more concerned with exploring the dynamic between the two ex-lovers, and is satisfied with the comedy that naturally arises from their situations. Jeon is excellent here, starting out stone-cold and furious and then slowly warming as her character’s emotional wall starts to melt away. Ha pulls off the neatest trick, playing a guy who appears, by all accounts, to be loathsome and an utter cad at the beginning of the film but then slowly reveals himself to be a surprisingly thoughtful and flat-out decent guy. He starts out under our skin but then somehow emerges in our hearts, which is no easy task. The ending was especially elegant, I thought, and finely wrapped up a story that exhibited a surprising amount of depth. The film is gentle in pace and winds up to be a heartwarming if somewhat unambitious tale. Watching Jeon and Ha play off each other is a delight, and the movie definitely offers an afternoon of mirthful escapism for moviegoers. However, My Dear Enemy doesn’t ever purport greatness either. Like any good bygone relationship, it’s got a decent amount of laughs and a few briefly sensitive and moving moments that certainly felt special at the time, but ultimately is better as a fond memory than something worth revisiting anytime soon.
Verdict: Catch

Turistas
Dir: Alicia Scherson
Cast: Aline Kuppenheim, Diego Noguera, Marcelo Alonso, Viviana Herr
Remaining LAFF Showtimes: N/A
Logline: On a much-needed road trip, 37-year-old Carla casually tells her husband she made a major decision without consulting him. Subconsciously, she’s hoping to escape their miserable marriage and its paralyzing maturity. It works. Abandoned (and quietly exhilarated) in the Chilean countryside, Carla camps with a young Norwegian stranger who takes her to a national park where the local residents are two gossipy teenagers and a retired pop singer. Surrounded by youth, wisdom, and natural splendor, Carla is forced to ask herself what age she wants to be — and admit that she’d rather destroy life’s gifts than grow worthy of them.
Review: Alicia Sherson tells the tale of Carla Guiterrez, a 37 year-old woman who is abandoned by her husband on the road to their vacation destination after revealing she has aborted their unborn baby without consulting him. Stranded at a local diner, she meets up with a young Norwegian backpacker who thinks he might be gay, and the two set off for a nearby national park for a few days of camping. She spends their time there meandering through a series of strange encounters with the campsite’s cast of colorful characters, and must ultimately decide for herself what she really wants out of a life filled with indecision.
Aline Kuppenheim turns in a nuanced performance as the self-described “clumsy” Carla, and it is on her shoulders that much of the film lies. Her character is a bit of an enigma, but Kuppenheim brings a stark honesty and vulnerability in her performance that makes Carla actually relatable. However, her performance can’t quite redeem the narrative muck that bogs down the film for much of it’s 105-minute runtime. She’s someone who can’t make up her mind, and it’s a trait that feels rather prevalent in the entire movie itself. The film can be frustratingly unfocused at times, at first seeming like a story of self-discovery, but at points feeling like a commentary on deforestation before suddenly switching gears into a psuedo-nature documentary. It’s as if Sherson tried to cram too many elements into one movie, and the result is somewhat of a confused mess. Carla veers wildly from indecisive to unpredictable to illogical, and the transitions aren’t completely seamless either. As a character study, Turistas works in that it paints an interesting portrait of all the different characters at the national park. However, it can’t quite maintain a compelling enough narrative thread to connect these personalities into a unified and engaging arc. It’s not that the film fails – there are actually quite a few great moments between Carla and the various campers and camp officials – it’s just when that potential ultimately doesn’t amount to any meaningful development or resolution, it’s disappointing. All these wondrously fleshed-out characters go through these fascinating interactions, but yet somehow it all feels empty at the end of it. The cinematography is worth mentioning for some stunning shots and clever tricks, as is the stripped down soundtrack. However, the individual parts can’t quite overcome the sum, as Turistas ends up a tedious exercise that is at best only momentarily intriguing.
Verdict: Skip

Still Walking (Aruitemo, Aruitemo)
Dir: Hirokazu Kore-eda
Cast: Hiroshi Abe, Yui Natsukawa, You, Kazuya Takahashi, Shohei Tanaka, Kirin Kiki, Yoshio Harada
Remaining LAFF Showtimes: Wednesday, June 24th 4:15pm at The Landmark Screen 4
Logline: Old resentments and new tensions seep to the surface at the Yokoyama clan’s annual reunion on the anniversary of eldest son Junpei’s premature death. Churlish patriarch Kyohei and manically active matriarch Toshiko have never gotten over Junpei’s drowning, a fact painfully obvious to their surviving children. Their surviving son Ryo and his new wife Yukari are continually reminded that his parents think he’s a failure in comparison to lost star Junpei, while ditzy daughter Chinami, her laidback husband, and their energetic children just want to ride out the visit. Nobody likes this ritual—yet they’ve repeated it for fifteen years.
Review: Hirokazu Koreeda, the celebrated director of After Life and Nobody Knows and one of my favorite working Japanese filmmakers, adds another notable work to his filmography with the achingly beautiful and poetic family dramedy Still Walking. The film follows the Yokoyama family reunion memorializing the anniversary of its eldest son Junpei’s accidental death years before. Tension surrounds the event, especially with the second eldest son Ryota’s recent marriage to a single mother and former widow. The grumpy patriarch of the family already holds a grudge against Ryota for not following in his footsteps and becoming a doctor, while the traditional mother is wary of her son’s new non-traditional family. Further complicating matters is Ryota’s super-enthusiastic sister Chinami, who, along with her obliviously energetic husband and two children, is campaigning to move back into their parent’s house to take care of them in their old age (traditionally the eldest son’s responsibility). So you can imagine, there are all sorts of underlying hostilities brewing over the day’s events.
Still Walking, like many of Koreeda’s films, moves at a slow-pace. But there is a marked difference between “slow” and “plodding” – though it may be slow, there is never a moment where Still Walking isn’t engaging and completely absorbing. The cast is wonderful together, playing a thoroughly convincing family with its share of idiosyncracies and pet peeves. Part of that is the script, which is written without any hint of showiness or conceit. The dialogue and situations flow so naturally that it’s easy to forget you’re watching actors act, and not a real family playing out its own private drama. The film is quietly affecting in its study of family dynamics within the Yokoyama household. For example, there is an exchange throughout the movie where the mother and Ryota try to remember the name of a famous sumo wrestler. This simple mundane detail actually ends up generating not only a few laughs, but becomes quite a stirring and poignant portrait of their relationship. Koreeda is masterful here in constructing so many moments like these, capturing the nuances and minutiae within a family coping with a loss it never fully allowed itself to grieve. It’s simply a stunning piece of work – a modestly presented film that grabs you emotionally and draws you into its unassuming world. Often times extremely funny, deeply moving, and ultimately heartbreaking, Still Walking is the film I have enjoyed the most at the L.A. Film Festival so far and displays an excellence in both its storytelling and performances that few films come close to today.
Verdict: Catch

Tags: Alicia Scherson, Hirokazu Koreeda, Lee Yoon-ki, My Dear Enemy, Still Walking, Turistas