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Filmmaker Magazine's 25 New Faces of Independent Film 2006

Director Eunhee Cho's Korean blog

Eunhee Cho's new project QUARI

INNER CIRCLE LINE:

In the city of Seoul, there is a large circular subway line. It is one of Koreas oldest and most populated subway trains. This constantly circling line has become a focal point for the travelers of Seoul, but it has also become the site of many suicides. This is The Inner Circle Line, one of main characters, Male Youngju's subway route. The Inner Circle Line is the setting for most of the action in the film. It is the place where characters meet, separate, wait and dream. Like the train, these characters experience relationships that are circular.

REVIEWS:

Beautifully shot and edited, Inner Circle Line is a highly accomplished debut feature with its own precise and personal cinematic language.
- Scott Macaulay, Filmmaker Magazine

Beautifully stylised visual approach with great feeling for the melancholy mood surrounding the doomed loves.
- Sandra den Hamer, FilmFest Rotterdam Director

Director Cho's strong debut feature calls upon a sense of despair which strongly reminds us of Sofia Coppola's LOST IN TRANSLATION.
-Dutch magazine SAFE (Translated from Dutch)

Cho's promising film touches on those favorite topics of indie Asian cinema, urban anomie and isolation, and its four character fall in and out of love, but, in true Chekhovian style, never at the same time. Sometimes soapy and sometimes heavy-handed, the film nonetheless makes great use of its partial setting on the Seoul subway line, which often appears to be the saddest location in the world.
- Alison Willmore, IFC

Not everyone will like Inner Circle Line. The film begins in a deceptively straightforward manner, following four young characters whose lives we know are connected somehow. Though one senses immediately that the characters' lives either once converged or are about to, it's genuinely surprising when the film takes a turn from cute indie drama to genuine Lynchian mind-bender. It's not for those who like to be led through a film's plot twists by the hand Shyamalan-style. Once it becomes apparent that the two principle characters (a man and a woman) share the name Youngju, the assumptions made in the movie's first half are discarded one by one. A scene on a subway involving a homeless woman with strange powers recalls Mulholland Drive a bit too much, but most of it - including one of the most uncomfortable breakup scenes in recent memory - is haunting and intriguing. Shot in gorgeous saturated colors and featuring a fantastic score, it's a film for those who like a good puzzle, even if the odds of solving it are against them. Inner Circle Line received a Special Jury Prize for Outstanding Visual Achievement.
-Jess Sauer, Austin Chronicle

"A love story for losers," is how the film's producer Alan Chan described this impressive film in his opening remarks at the New York Asian American International Film Festival. And indeed, Cho's debut film beautifully captures the complications of love, and the intertwined pain and joy the eternal search for love and connection entails. The film takes its title from the name for the circular subway line in Seoul, and it becomes a potent metaphor for the lives of its characters. "Inner Circle Line" tells the parallel stories of a man and a woman who both share the same name, Youngju. The female Youngju is a nightclub DJ; the male Youngju is a train operator on the Inner Circle Line. They both lead their own respective lonely, restricted existences: the DJ spins records with almost identical thudding techno beats and the train operator spends his nights driving in a circle. Even though they each have close relationships with others, their painful pasts prevent them from experiencing true happiness. There exists an essential link between these two namesakes that I won't reveal, since one the joys of this film is in discovering the intricate connections between these characters, and the personal histories that have shaped them. Cho's meticulous script is wonderfully attuned to the nuances of the relationships she presents, and brilliantly captures the loneliness of big cities. Shot on digital video, "Inner Circle Line"'s richly textured visuals serve as effective analogue to her story and characters. Although the film's style is elliptical and contains elements that echo Hou Hsiao-hsien and Tsai Ming-liang, it is nevertheless very accessible. Cho's film proves that beyond the blockbuster hits and crowd pleasers, there exists in Korea a vital independent scene, of which "Inner Circle Line" is a prime example.
-Christopher Bourne, Meniscus Magazine