Somewhere in The Night

Young writer Richard Collier is met on the opening night of his first play by an old lady who begs him to "Come back to me". Mystified, he tries to find out about her, and learns that she is a famous stage actress from the early 1900s, Elise McKenna. Becoming more and more obsessed with her, he manages, by self hypnosis, to travel back in time where he meets her. They fall in love, a matching that is not appreciated by her manager. Can their love outlast the immense problems caused by their "time" difference? And can Richard remain in a time that is not his?

Young writer Richard Collier is met on the opening night of his first play by an old lady who begs him to "Come back to me". Mystified, he tries to find out about her, and learns that she is a famous stage actress from the early 1900s, Elise McKenna. Becoming more and more obsessed with her, he manages, by self hypnosis, to travel back in time where he meets her. They fall in love, a matching that is not appreciated by her manager. Can their love outlast the immense problems caused by their "time" difference? And can Richard remain in a time that is not his?

Julio Medem's Room in Rome reminded me about Chilean director Matias Bize's wonderful En la cama (In Bed). In Bize's film a man and a woman meet in a bar and then spend the night together in a rundown motel. They make love, talk about their lives, most intimate desires and darkest secrets. In the morning, they part ways.

The poignant, deadpan films of Aki Kaurismäki are pitched somewhere in the wintry nether lands between comedy and tragedy. And rarely in his body of work has the line separating those genres seemed thinner than in what is often identified as his “Proletariat Trilogy,” Shadows in Paradise, Ariel, and The Match Factory Girl.

Someplace, somewhere, in the future mankind fell. A Great War turned Earth into a wilderness and a wasteland. Cars, electricity, computers, all modern technology is long gone and forgotten about. There are pockets of civilization living in decaying and ramshackle cities, but the long and endless roads between these places are filled with bandits, swindlers, and things that go bump in the night. Living in the ruins of one of these cities is Chris, a runaway child. With no hope that his family will take him back, he lives with a group of misfits in a junkyard, stealing to survive. When a traveling preacher tells him that his father is alive and wants him to come home, Chris must decide whether to stay with his new family of thieves or venture into the wilderness in search of his dad and a better life. Join Chris on the journey of a lifetime, as he meets strange drifters, discovers a city full of every kid's desires, travels through awe-inspiring mountains and raging rivers, and battles creatures of the night.

Michael, Steven and Nick are young factory workers from Pennsylvania who enlist into the Army to fight in Vietnam. Before they go, Steven marries the pregnant Angela and their wedding-party is also the men's farewell party. After some time and many horrors the three friends fall in the hands of the Vietcong and are brought to a prison camp

Michael, Steven and Nick are young factory workers from Pennsylvania who enlist into the Army to fight in Vietnam. Before they go, Steven marries the pregnant Angela and their wedding-party is also the men's farewell party. After some time and many horrors the three friends fall in the hands of the Vietcong and are brought to a prison camp…

Director: Chang-min Chu
Although slow, meandering, and more or less uneventful, Lost in Love overcomes the odds and makes for a surprisingly compelling viewing experience. Director Choo Chang-Min's second film amounts to an excellent rumination on the perils of unspoken love and missed opportunities.

From writer/director Choo Chang-Min comes Lost in Love, a 2006 melodrama about two people who can never seem to get things right when it comes to romance - they either can't adequately communicate their feelings to one another or simply lack the courage to even try. Unlike other recent films of this kind, rather than throw in a terminal illness or have someone fall victim to a car accident somewhere in the story, the filmmakers wisely avoid these K-drama clichés, instead delivering a film that feels anything but formulaic. The pace may be a bit slow, but it's a compelling journey nonetheless.

Song Yoon-Ah portrays Yeon-Ju, a timid young girl who maintains a secret crush on her platonic male friend, Woo-Jae (Sol Kyung-Gu, from Public Enemy and Peppermint Candy). Her shyness frequently gets the better of her, and she can only stand idly by and watch as Woo-Jae suffers a broken heart at the hands of his ex-girlfriend and, consequently, get kicked off the school's crew team due to his resulting attitude problem. Later, while Woo-Jae is in the army, Yeon-Ju visits him, hoping to spend the night with him. Unfortunately, just as in their school days, Woo-Jae is totally oblivious to her intentions, and a disappointed Yeon-Ju goes home.