Directed by Kim Tae Yong, Late Autumn is a remake of a classic melodrama by Lee Man Hee and stars Hyun Bin and Tang Wei as the leading cast.
Anna Chen (Tang Wei) is on a 72 hour parole to attend her mother's funeral while going through a 9 year sentence for the murder of her abusive husband. While on the bus to Seattle, she encounters a Korean man on the run named Hoon (Hyun Bin) who mistakes her for a Korean briefly but then asks in English for an extra $30 to pay for his bus ticket. Promising to pay Anna back and asking her to keep his watch for a while, the two begin to spend time together before Anna returns to prison. Anna does not know what Hoon is running from exactly but we learn he is trying to escape from his client's husband who is angry his Korean wife Ok-Ja had an affair.
A co-production between China, Korea and America, Late Autumn is primarily filmed in Washington and follows Anna and Hoon as their budding relationship goes through awkward hoops and some briefly pleasant interactions as they stroll around Seattle.
While the story idea is simple, in that it focuses on companionship and needing someone to talk to, the pacing is just very slow and when there is an ambiguous ending to this film it does not help the mood at all. The English dialogue may sound strained but we have to bear in mind the main characters' first language is not English.
There were some realistically awkward moments with Anna when she's just being very sombre and not saying much. One instance is when Anna is queuing up to get a train ticket to go somewhere but then changes her mind twice which baffles the train staff at the counter. It comes off as weird and in a foreign country it is just going to raise eyebrows. I know this kind of thing not a big deal in general to many but if you dissect it hard enough you'll see it. In all fairness this is something that apples to me because eccentric me doing even the smallest gestures and I can pick out the suspicious glances in a heartbeat.
Anna's occasional coldness and very rarely smiling demeanour is like me in Dandere mode. Whereas Hoon is a gigolo and throws himself out there a little bit mischievously to strike any conversation with Anna. On the one hand, her quietness reaches breaking point at her mother's funeral after a scuffle between her ex boyfriend/first love Wang Jing and Hoon and that just hit home because honestly how far can you suppress your emotions like that?
Putting aside the awkward would be love scene near the beginning of the film, the poetry of Anna and Hoon's relationship becomes more evident when Hoon realises he is further trouble after Steve (Ok Ja's husband) finds him and warns him the police are coming to arrest him for the murder of his wife. Anna and Hoon share a long, intimate moment and Hoon says he will meet her at the same place, by the cafe where the bus has parked until she has finished her jail time. After awakening from a nap, Anna can't find her new friend and knows he has disappeared before the arrival of the police.
The final scenes of the film jump to 2 years later and Anna is a free woman who revisits the same place where she last kissed and hugged Hoon, settling in a cafe and waiting quietly. We don't know if she ever met Hoon again as the final dialogue simply has her saying, "Hey it's been a long time huh?" but we aren't sure if she's talking to the air or really speaking to her friend.
Apart from that frustrating ending, revisiting Late Autumn for a second viewing made me appreciate the film a little bit more for the simplicity and friendly moments Anna and Hoon share when they spend time together in Seattle. The unexpected finding of a good friend during a bleak time in your life.