In Between Days

In Between Days is the kind of distinctive filmmaking that leaves you enriched but also melancholy. It is at once a love story and a neorealist depiction of assimilation, as well as an exploration of intimacy, communication, and human need. Director So Yong Kim has fashioned an affecting, multifaceted story that resounds with quiet humanity and truth. Aimie, a recently arrived Korean immigrant teenager, has fallen in love with her best and only friend, Tran. She tries to express her feelings for him but is scared of losing their friendship. Their misunderstood affection for each other creates a delicate relationship that is challenged by the demands of living in a new country. Aimie begins to lose Tran to an Americanized Korean girl, and her world becomes more isolated until she is forced to look inside herself for answers. In Between Days reveals a visual director at work. With precise cinematography, Kim makes every moment count, using each shot to relate a piece of the story. The film also boasts an absorbing performance by Jiseon Kim as Aimie; her natural physicality relays inner emotions that say so much more than dialogue ever could. Together, director and actor create a reality that is so simple and pure it works perfectly to capture the honesty of this moving story.