🔗 Share this article Winter in Sokcho Analysis: An Atmospheric Slow-Burn Story of Familial Bonds and Closeness in a South Korean Border City Based on the book by Swiss-Korean writer Elisa Dusapin, this elusive yet bracing film follows guesthouse worker Sooha (Kim Bella) as she escorts author from France Yan (Roschdy Zem) to the DMZ just north of the city of Sokcho. Metaphor alert: Koya Kamura’s first feature also resides in a liminal space of the soul, with Sooha, left behind by her father from France while she was still unborn, caught between two cultures. Once the francophone hostess is compelled to accompany the enigmatic author, she lingers uncomfortably between strained companionship and Oedipal attraction. Everyday Existence and Upheaval When she’s not digging into visually stunning marine dishes prepared by her fishmonger mother (Mi-hyeon Park), Sooha is relaxing with her partner (Do-yu Gong), an aspiring model aiming for a relocation to the capital. But this comfy routine is disrupted when the foreigner settles in for a long-term stay. Initially matching her prejudices about rude French men, he turns out, after an online search, to be critically lauded graphic novelist Yan Kerrand. Coming to Sokcho in pursuit of inspiration, he manages to prise the account of Sooha’s absent parent from her. She spies on him through a air duct – but the question lingers whether he’s a surrogate parent, or another figure entirely. Emotional Landscape and Thematic Depth Sooha’s subterranean feelings surface in flashes of secret, sinuous moments of bodily suffocation and release. We witness only her internal world, though; Yan stays a remote presence, upholding his loner ethic and stingy with particulars of his past. His cipher status, as Sooha imposes her needs on to him, is deliberate – but this one-sidedness prevents Winter in Sokcho from reaching its full potential. Aesthetic expression – and control, with Sooha’s mother and boyfriend both pushing cosmetic surgery on her – is evidently a central idea for Kamura. Yet despite Yan’s vocation, it seems a bit separate from the primary narrative, like the enigmatic bandaged diner also in residence. Performances and Cinematic Craft The three focused performances at the core – an nearly aggressive Roschdy Zem, increasingly scattered Bella Kim, and the self-involved Park – give Winter in Sokcho its solid centre, and if Kamura doesn't fully narratively contain the cautious standoff between hotelier and visitor, he is consistently on his toes in terms of feeling, often dipping into a tactile visual register. Fixating on emptiness, on the verge of drown in internal sensations, Kamura musters an intriguing kind of contemporary phantom tale. The film can be seen on Mubi from 7 November.