# In Another Country
**In Another Country** (다른 나라에서, *Da-reun na-ra-e-seo*) is a 2012 South Korean drama film written and directed by [Hong Sang-soo](https://www.edgepedia.org/hong-sang-soo), in which [Isabelle Huppert](https://www.edgepedia.org/isabelle-huppert) plays three different French women named Anne who visit the same seaside resort town in separate, overlapping stories[1](https://www.koreanfilm.or.kr/mobile3/films/filmView.jsp?movieCd=20124350) • [2](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/328815/). It was Hong's first English-language film and premiered in the official competition at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival[3](https://kinolorber.com/film/inanothercountry) • [4](https://www.cinemateca.pt/getattachment/Cinemateca/Destaques/Retrospetiva-Hong-Sang-soo-%E2%80%93-folhas%E2%80%9D-disponiveis/in-another-country.pdf.aspx).
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director and writer | Hong Sang-soo[1](https://www.koreanfilm.or.kr/mobile3/films/filmView.jsp?movieCd=20124350) |
| Premiere | Official competition, Festival de Cannes, first public screening May 21, 2012[4](https://www.cinemateca.pt/getattachment/Cinemateca/Destaques/Retrospetiva-Hong-Sang-soo-%E2%80%93-folhas%E2%80%9D-disponiveis/in-another-country.pdf.aspx) |
| South Korean release | May 31, 2012; 30,784 admissions[1](https://www.koreanfilm.or.kr/mobile3/films/filmView.jsp?movieCd=20124350) • [5](https://cine21.com/movie/info/?movie_id=36798) |
| Runtime | 88 minutes per the Korean Film Council database; 89 minutes per Cineuropa and Kino Lorber[1](https://www.koreanfilm.or.kr/mobile3/films/filmView.jsp?movieCd=20124350) • [2](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/328815/) |
| Lead cast | Isabelle Huppert (Anne), Yu Jun-sang (lifeguard), Jung Yu-mi (Won-joo)[1](https://www.koreanfilm.or.kr/mobile3/films/filmView.jsp?movieCd=20124350) |
| Production | Jeonwonsa Film Co. (South Korea) with Les Films du Camélia (France); producer Kim Kyoung-hee[2](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/328815/) |
| U.S. release | Kino Lorber, limited theatrical release November 9, 2012; gross of $22.1K[6](https://www.thewrap.com/cannes-2012-kino-lorber-wins-us-rights-another-country-41431/) • [7](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/in_another_country) |
| Critical scores | 83% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer (30 reviews); Metascore 69 from 13 critic reviews[7](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/in_another_country) • [8](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/in-another-country/) |
## Spoilers
### Premise and structure
The film opens with a frame story. A young film student, Won-joo (Jung Yu-mi), and her mother Park Sook ([Youn Yuh-jung](https://www.edgepedia.org/youn-yuh-jung)) flee mounting debt to Mohang, a seaside town, where the daughter writes scripts for a short film to calm her nerves[1](https://www.koreanfilm.or.kr/mobile3/films/filmView.jsp?movieCd=20124350) • [9](https://www.screendaily.com/in-another-country/5042339.article). Three women named Anne then appear, each visiting Mohang in turn[1](https://www.koreanfilm.or.kr/mobile3/films/filmView.jsp?movieCd=20124350):
1. The first Anne is a successful film director visiting her Korean friend Jong-soo (Kwon Hae-hyo)[1](https://www.koreanfilm.or.kr/mobile3/films/filmView.jsp?movieCd=20124350) • [10](https://inreviewonline.com/2018/10/25/in-another-country/).
2. The second Anne is a married woman secretly having an affair with a Korean man[1](https://www.koreanfilm.or.kr/mobile3/films/filmView.jsp?movieCd=20124350).
3. The third Anne is a divorcée whose husband left her for a Korean woman; in this version she seeks guidance from a monk[1](https://www.koreanfilm.or.kr/mobile3/films/filmView.jsp?movieCd=20124350) • [11](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/may/21/in-another-country-review).
Each Anne stays at the small hotel by the Mohang shore owned by Won-joo's parents, receives help from the owner's daughter, and meets the lifeguard ([Yu Jun](https://www.edgepedia.org/yu-jun)-sang) who wanders the nearby beach[1](https://www.koreanfilm.or.kr/mobile3/films/filmView.jsp?movieCd=20124350). The three stories echo one another through repeated events and characters: Anne asks the lifeguard for directions to a lighthouse in one story and joins a young woman on a shopping trip in another, while a man and his pregnant wife (Kwon Hae-hyo and [Moon So-ri](https://www.edgepedia.org/moon-so-ri)) and the filmmaker lover (Moon Sung-keun) recur in shifting configurations[12](https://www.filmcomment.com/in-another-country-hong-sang-soo/) • [13](https://eng.koreafilm.or.kr/movie/PM_010441).
## Production and language
**A first for the director.** The film was Hong Sang-soo's first English-language production, with Huppert speaking English throughout[3](https://kinolorber.com/film/inanothercountry) • [10](https://inreviewonline.com/2018/10/25/in-another-country/). It was a France–South Korea co-production between Les Films du Camélia and Jeonwonsa Film, produced by Kim Kyoung-hee, with cinematography by Park Hong-yeol and Jee Yune-jeong and editing by Hahm Sung-won[2](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/328815/). The English singer and actress [Jane Birkin](https://www.edgepedia.org/jane-birkin) appears in a cameo at the beginning of the film[14](https://drupal.gijon.es/sites/default/files/2019-04/2013_catalogo_51ed.pdf). Huppert, an admirer of Hong's work, agreed to the project before knowing what it would be about, saying she said yes because she loves his films[15](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm%3D195897.html).
## Release and reception
The film premiered in competition at Cannes on May 21, 2012, and opened in South Korea on May 31, 2012, drawing 30,784 admissions[4](https://www.cinemateca.pt/getattachment/Cinemateca/Destaques/Retrospetiva-Hong-Sang-soo-%E2%80%93-folhas%E2%80%9D-disponiveis/in-another-country.pdf.aspx) • [5](https://cine21.com/movie/info/?movie_id=36798). Kino Lorber acquired U.S. rights at the festival; CEO Richard Lorber called it a breakthrough film for the director, and the company released it theatrically in the United States on November 9, 2012, where it grossed $22.1K[6](https://www.thewrap.com/cannes-2012-kino-lorber-wins-us-rights-another-country-41431/) • [7](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/in_another_country).
Critical response was favorable but divided on the film's weight. On Rotten Tomatoes it holds an 83% Tomatometer from 30 reviews, with a critics consensus praising its intelligent observations and Huppert's presence, while the audience score stands at 48%[7](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/in_another_country). Metacritic assigned a Metascore of 69 based on 13 reviews, in the "generally favorable" range[8](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/in-another-country/). Korean critics on Cine21 gave it an expert score of 7.80 and an audience score of 7.65[5](https://cine21.com/movie/info/?movie_id=36798).
Reviewers frequently noted the film's lightness. Peter Bradshaw, film critic for *The Guardian*, called it "a transnational doodle of a film" that is "slight, diverting, forgettable"[11](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/may/21/in-another-country-review). Sheri Linden of the *Los Angeles Times* described it as "a beguiling set of variations on a theme" composed for delight rather than dissection[16](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-xpm-2013-jan-10-la-et-mn-in-another-country-capsule-20130111-story.html). Nick Schager, writing in *Film Comment*, argued that Huppert's performance, remaking the same situations with slightly different notes, was what made the film occasionally sparkle[12](https://www.filmcomment.com/in-another-country-hong-sang-soo/).
## Place in Hong's career
The film marked a shift toward more consistently transnational production in Hong's economically modest filmmaking, and it began a series of collaborations with Huppert, who later played a photographer wandering Cannes in his *Claire's Camera* (2017)[10](https://inreviewonline.com/2018/10/25/in-another-country/) • [17](https://www.lemonde.fr/culture/article/2025/01/22/dans-la-voyageuse-de-hong-sang-soo-isabelle-huppert-est-delicieusement-lost-in-fiction_6510024_3246.html). The Korean Film Archive's Cinematheque program notes describe it as the start of one of the most fruitful actor-director collaborations in contemporary cinema, and as a study in variations in which uncanny differences and strange echoes accumulate across the three stories[13](https://eng.koreafilm.or.kr/movie/PM_010441). Commentators have also read its nested structure, three scripts written within the frame story, as an arrangement of multiple story worlds whose hierarchy the film deliberately complicates[18](https://core.ac.uk/download/211518575.pdf).
## References
1. [In Another Country, Korean Film Council (KOBIZ) film database](https://www.koreanfilm.or.kr/mobile3/films/filmView.jsp?movieCd=20124350)
2. [In Another Country (Da-reun na-ra-e-seo), Cineuropa](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/328815/)
3. [In Another Country, Kino Lorber](https://kinolorber.com/film/inanothercountry)
4. [Da-reun Na-ra-e-seo / In Another Country, Cinemateca Portuguesa retrospective notes](https://www.cinemateca.pt/getattachment/Cinemateca/Destaques/Retrospetiva-Hong-Sang-soo-%E2%80%93-folhas%E2%80%9D-disponiveis/in-another-country.pdf.aspx)
5. [다른 나라에서 (In Another Country), Cine21](https://cine21.com/movie/info/?movie_id=36798)
6. [Cannes 2012: Kino Lorber Wins U.S. Rights to 'In Another Country', TheWrap](https://www.thewrap.com/cannes-2012-kino-lorber-wins-us-rights-another-country-41431/)
7. [In Another Country, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/in_another_country)
8. [In Another Country Reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/in-another-country/)
9. [In Another Country, Screen Daily, review by Dan Fainaru](https://www.screendaily.com/in-another-country/5042339.article)
10. [In Another Country, In Review Online, review by Paul Attard](https://inreviewonline.com/2018/10/25/in-another-country/)
11. [Cannes 2012: In Another Country – review, The Guardian, Peter Bradshaw](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/may/21/in-another-country-review)
12. [Review: In Another Country, Film Comment, Nick Schager](https://www.filmcomment.com/in-another-country-hong-sang-soo/)
13. [In Another Country + List, Korean Film Archive Cinematheque programme](https://eng.koreafilm.or.kr/movie/PM_010441)
14. [HONG SANG-SOO, 51st Gijón International Film Festival catalogue](https://drupal.gijon.es/sites/default/files/2019-04/2013_catalogo_51ed.pdf)
15. [In another country, AlloCiné](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm%3D195897.html)
16. [Review: Stories charm 'In Another Country', Los Angeles Times](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-xpm-2013-jan-10-la-et-mn-in-another-country-capsule-20130111-story.html)
17. [Dans « La Voyageuse », de Hong Sang-soo, Isabelle Huppert est délicieusement « lost in fiction », Le Monde](https://www.lemonde.fr/culture/article/2025/01/22/dans-la-voyageuse-de-hong-sang-soo-isabelle-huppert-est-delicieusement-lost-in-fiction_6510024_3246.html)
18. [Somewhere Between Fiction and Fiction: narrative construction in Hong Sang-soo's films (thesis)](https://core.ac.uk/download/211518575.pdf)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Comedy and romantic films (individual works) › Comedies of 2011 to 2012 › Released in 2012*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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