At times, Treeless Mountain almost feels like a fairy tale -- but without the magic.
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04/23/09
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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.
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... [More]
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Reviews for Treeless Mountain
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.
06/18/09
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.
05/15/09
In the end, this melancholy, inspiriting movie achieves a breathtaking emotional harmoniousness.
05/08/09
The big payoff moment is so small and passes so quietly that it's almost unbearably beautiful.
04/24/09
Interesting if occasionally limiting.
08/07/09
In modest, lovingly observed ways, the director gives her characters -- and, one hazards, herself -- the gentlest gift of sweet possibility.
07/17/09
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.
06/11/09
A glowing reminiscence of a difficult childhood, further illuminated by lovely performances, directorial nuance and gorgeous visuals.
04/23/09
very real magic emanates from Treeless Mountain like vapor from a block of dry ice
04/21/09
Kim is deft and sensitive with her tiny co-stars, but Treeless Mountain lacks the freshness and surprise of In Between Days.
05/08/09
Top CriticChildren 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.
05/04/09
Kim is undoubtedly a skilled director, but she’s someone who seems more content to observe than state.
09/08/08
Both lovely and wrenching, So Yong Kim's intimate drama feels so honest, it's often difficult to watch.
04/24/09
Is it fair for the director to strip away so much and leave us feeling so helpless? I’m still in pain; I don’t know.
04/20/09
Top CriticDeeply rooted in the perspectives of its ill-fated heroines, Treeless Mountain finds a place in the modern abandoned-child narratives alongside Ramin Bahrani's Chop Shop and the inferior period piece Blame It On Fidel.
04/22/09
Treeless Mountain has the tang of real life, though this is realism that has been filtered through 60 or so years of world art cinema.
04/22/09
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.
04/24/09
Top CriticA surrealistic charmer blessed with some breathtaking cinematography.
04/25/09
Occasionally drags, but it nonetheless manages to be a quietly engrossing, well-nuanced and sensitive drama filled with exquisite cinematography.
04/23/09
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