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Movies / Upcoming / Treeless Mountain
Treeless Mountain

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Treeless Mountain (2009)

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Reviews Counted:35

Fresh:30

Rotten:5

Average Rating:7.6/10

Consensus: Intermittently wondrous and harsh, this sensitive drama about two abandoned sisters gives time and space to the intimate and beautiful moments of childhood.

Rated: Not Rated

Runtime: 89 mins

Genre: Foreign Films

Theatrical Release:Apr 22, 2009 Limited

Synopsis: When their mother needs to leave in order to find their estranged father, seven year-old Jin and her younger sister, Bin, are left to live with their Big Aunt for the summer. With only a small... When their mother needs to leave in order to find their estranged father, seven year-old Jin and her younger sister, Bin, are left to live with their Big Aunt for the summer. With only a small piggy bank and their mother's promise to return when it is full, the two young girls are forced to acclimate to changes in their family life. Counting the days, and the coins, the two bright-eyed young girls eagerly anticipate their mother's homecoming. But when the bank fills up, and with their mother still not back, Big Aunt decides that she can no longer tend to the children. Taken to live on their grandparents' farm, it is here that Jin comes to learn the importance of family bonds in this beautiful, meditative, and thought-provoking second feature from So Yong Kim, the acclaimed director of In Between Days. --© Oscilloscope Pictures [More]

Starring: Hee Yeon Kim, Mi-hyang Kim

Starring: Hee Yeon Kim, Mi-hyang Kim

Director: So Yong Kim

Director: So Yong Kim
Studio: Oscilloscope Pictures

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Reviews for Treeless Mountain

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1 - 20 (sorted by date)
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..the film is tender, touching and charming, a portrait of quiet resilience and sisterly devotion...

Full Review Source: Seanax.com | comment Comment
09/20/09
Sean Axmaker
Sean Axmaker
Seanax.com

Interesting if occasionally limiting.

Full Review Source: Creative Loafing | comment Comment
08/07/09
Matt Brunson
Matt Brunson
Creative Loafing

Somewhere in between all the emptiness -- the film's laconic chapters are separated by repeated static shots of clouds and sky -- a beautiful little point is made.

Full Review Source: Washington Post | comment Comment
07/23/09
Michael O'Sullivan
Michael O'Sullivan
Washington Post
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

It's subtle, moving and, despite the grim subject, hopeful.

Full Review Source: St. Paul Pioneer Press | comment Comment
07/17/09
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
St. Paul Pioneer Press

In modest, lovingly observed ways, the director gives her characters -- and, one hazards, herself -- the gentlest gift of sweet possibility.

Full Review Source: Denver Post | comment Comment
07/17/09
Lisa Kennedy
Lisa Kennedy
Denver Post
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

So Yong Kim has a real gift for putting children at ease before the camera, and her two very young actresses (who are not sisters off-screen) reward her with performances of heartbreaking realism.

Full Review Source: Seattle Times | comment Comment
06/26/09
Moira MacDonald
Moira MacDonald
Seattle Times

The film is spare and a bit static, the plot a buildup of mundane moments, but Kim's conceptual smarts and firm direction are impressive, as are the performances from such little children.

Full Review Source: Oregonian | comment Comment
06/19/09
Stan Hall
Stan Hall
Oregonian

Treeless Mountain casts a sad, pellucid spell. It looks at life from three feet off the ground and meets the hardening gaze of its 6-year-old protagonist head on.

Full Review Source: Boston Globe | comment Comment
06/18/09
Ty Burr
Ty Burr
Boston Globe
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

...requires the commitment by the viewer to get involved in the lives of the little girls. But, for the real film buff, this is a true labor of love and worth the effort.

Full Review Source: Reeling Reviews | comment Comment
06/13/09
Robin Clifford
Robin Clifford
Reeling Reviews

Relying on the essentially inert performances of child actors, So Yong Kim draws on a deep understanding of how movies work but also taps into her own experiences. That's a potent combination.

Full Review Source: Paste Magazine | comment Comment
06/13/09
Robert Davis
Robert Davis
Paste Magazine

Whatever magic filmmaker So Yong Kim used to get the two girls to feel so at ease, you wish she would have used a little of that on the rest of the film as well. While it is a fairly realistic and no-frills drama, it's also dull.

Full Review Source: Deseret News, Salt Lake City | comment Comment
06/11/09
Jeff Vice
Jeff Vice
Deseret News, Salt Lake City

So Yong Kim's quiet film which takes its time observing the minutiae of every day life has an undercurrent of grander themes at play.

Full Review Source: Reeling Reviews | comment Comment
06/01/09
Laura Clifford
Laura Clifford
Reeling Reviews

I crossed. It’s the sort of “slice of life” that defies words, which is perhaps why these little girls and their overwhelmingly grey world are rendered in such quietude.

Full Review Source: Boxoffice Magazine | comment Comment
05/15/09
Sara Schieron
Sara Schieron
Boxoffice Magazine

So Yong Kim has made another minimalist masterpiece, a quiet movie of sharply observed details and two girls who will break your heart.

Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | comment Comment
05/15/09
G. Allen Johnson
G. Allen Johnson
San Francisco Chronicle
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

In the end, this melancholy, inspiriting movie achieves a breathtaking emotional harmoniousness.

Full Review Source: Christian Science Monitor | comment Comment
05/08/09
Peter Rainer
Peter Rainer
Christian Science Monitor

Kim is deft and sensitive with her tiny co-stars, but Treeless Mountain lacks the freshness and surprise of In Between Days.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | comment Comment
05/08/09
Ella Taylor
Ella Taylor
Los Angeles Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

So Yong Kim's remarkable film never spells out exactly what Jin or Bin is thinking, the camera implies how they see.

Full Review Source: PopMatters | comment Comment
05/07/09
Cynthia Fuchs
Cynthia Fuchs
PopMatters

Children rule the day in this semi-autobiographical film by new film maker So Yong Kim but it comes off more as an exercise in filmmaking than entertainment.

Full Review Source: Monsters and Critics | comment Comment
05/04/09
Ron Wilkinson
Ron Wilkinson
Monsters and Critics

A surrealistic charmer blessed with some breathtaking cinematography.

Full Review Source: NewsBlaze | comment Comment
04/25/09
Kam Williams
Kam Williams
NewsBlaze

Too many filmmakers look down -- literally and figuratively -- on children. But in the carefully observed Treeless Mountain, So Young Kim gets us to immediately identify with her young heroines.

Full Review Source: Newark Star-Ledger | comment Comment
04/24/09
Stephen Whitty
Stephen Whitty
Newark Star-Ledger
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
 
 
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