That was an excellent one.

One of my all time favorites.

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

A Masterpiece!

The prologue opens with a dishevelled and somewhat stunned looking women (later known as Anna Chan), a lost soul wandering in a suburban area of a city (later known to be Seattle). Then, as if suddenly snapped back into her senses, she returns to what must be scene of crime and fumbles around a dead man lying on the floor. Police sirens, then an abrupt cut to the title on a black screen "Late Autumn".Seven years later, we see Anna getting a three day pass from prison to attend her mother's funeral, with a cell phone by which her whereabouts is monitored. Failure to answer and report will constitute prison-breaking, immediately triggering a manhunt (or womanhunt, if you wish). On the bus home to Seattle, she encounters Hoon, a Korean young man who claims to have his wallet stolen and borrows 30 dollars from her to make up for his bus fare. Noticing the reluctance in her compliance, he leaves her his watch for custodianship until he pays her back. The rest of the movie is about the development of a subtle relationship between Anna and Hoon.The persona of the two protagonists cannot be more polarized. Hoon is flippant, happy-go-lucky but not without charm. This soon all makes sense as it is revealed that his is a male escort (a less flattering term would be gigolo). While phone calls Anna gets are from the prison authorities, Hoon gets his share of phone calls from a friend warning him that one of his favourite client's husband is furious and coming after him. Anna, serving a sentence for killing (not specified if it is murder or lesser charge) is understandably taciturn and guarding. Hoon seems quite sincere in his attentive and gentle attempt to make friends, but to no avail.Upon arrival in Seattle, Hoon goes off to meet his client, said wife of the angry husband, makes himself obviously very welcome, receives a handsome fee, and even an invitation to elope. Anna is less fortunate, finding herself almost like a stranger to her family after 7 years of imprisonment. After some agonizing, she decides to spend the time before the funeral in solitude. When Anna and Hoon chance to meet again, each with a day ahead with no clear purpose, it is where the mesmerizing movie really begins. On an impulse, she suggests sex ("Do you want me?") which does not work out as she has been so emotionally damaged in the last 7 years in prison. In good humour, he suggests taking this "first unsatisfied customer" on a relaxing tour of Seattle.One situation in movies always fascinates me – how two complete strangers finally click. My top favourite has always been, and still is, "The bridges of Madison County" (1995)(except for Before Sunrise/Sunset, which is beyond being mere "top favourite"). What "Late Autumn" offers is ingenious and, as already mentioned, mesmerizing. The day has gone relaxing enough, despite her taciturn irresponsiveness to his considerate attention. Then at dawn, in a deserted amusement park, something magical happens. At a distance, they see a couple (purportedly Greek, he darkish and she blonde and fair) on an animated exchange. He is trying to end their relationship while she implores him to reconsider. In his customary flippant style, Hoon starts to dub the conversation in amusement, in both voices. The magical moment starts when Anna, quite unexpectedly, picks up the woman's part. The scene ends with a surreal dance sequence beautifully executed by the distant couple. From this point on, there may not appear to have been any apparent change in the relationship between Anna and Hoon, the audience sense that somewhere, there souls are beginning to find each other.Two ensuing and equally ingenious scenes cement this development. Anna tells her story – an adolescent infatuation, an unhappy marriage, re-entering into her life of the irresponsible man she adored, jealous husband and physical abuse, and finally killing (legal technicalities omitted) and imprisonment. While Anna and Hoon have been conversing in English (with amply adequate fluency), this self-revelation sequence is in Chinese, with Hoon responding in the only two Chinese words he knows – "good" and "bad". Despite that fact that these two words are sometimes used incorrectly (almost farcically), one somehow gets the feeling that Hoon understands most of what Anna tells him. Or does it really matter? The other scene is a social gathering after the funeral, ending in a brawl between Hoon and this irresponsible ex-boy friend of Anna, now happily married. The whole scene is a charade and again at times almost farcical – the reason given by Hoon for his physical attack is that this man has used his fork, and didn't even apologize. The more farcical the scene, the more poignant is the entirely over-blown emotional reaction of both Hoon and Anna, standing up for each other.I fear this piece is already approaching IMDb's word limits. There is a lot more to be discovered, enjoyed and appreciated in this movie which is filmed in Seattle, in the city's usual melancholy rain and mist, but not without a break of sunshine that is particularly significant. Music is put to the best use, as is complete silence. TANG Wei's superb, nuanced performance won her a dozen well deserved awards. HYUN Bin's role is not as easy as it appears. To play a flippant gigolo is not difficult but to play one that convincingly capture the audience empathy requires much work, which he delivers almost effortlessly.

Picture: Anna gets out of prison for 2 days after 7 years on falsely charged crime of killing her husband, because her mother passed away. She returned home to her brother asking for her signature to sell the house; she sees young nephews and nieces that she has never seen before. As family members argue with each other over logistics of the funeral, she walks to the backyard and attempts to make friend with a cat, who led her to see her lover - a man who grew up with her, left her, came back to ask her to divorce her husband, and later killed her husband and never left Anna in prison, with his new wife and a baby. He said, how are you doing, it's good to see you, you still look like a child, and squeezes her cheeks. The film then shows Anna shopping, buying and putting on a dress, earrings, make-up. Throughout the movie Tang Wei does not say much, except in a few outbursts where her emotions accumulates (she did this before in Lust, Caution). You think in this scene, she want something, just a little bit, for herself now. This is a movie where if you put in enough empathy, you might shift uncomfortably in your chair during a few scenes. I walked away thinking, how long will that one kiss, or the one promise, lasts for her in prison? With her understated and unspoken acting, Wei's character appears to be of almost limitless will - and I think she will wait in that cafe for forever. It's a superb script, with brilliant surprises that make emotional sense that superb script has. I think it asks: stripped of all the superficial necessities and orders that make our lives make sense, what happen to us? What would you do if you are Chinese American on a Portland to Seattle bus attending your mother's funeral and need to go back to prison in two days, with the persons you loved leaving you in prison, bumping into a handsome Korean gigolo, who might be the only person in the world that cares about you?

Two strangers met in a bus trip. Anna has been in jail for 7 years and is on a 3day bail to attend her mom's funeral. Hyunbin is at large and hiding from Police. Anna is a Chinese while Hyunbin is a Korean. In the movie, their only language to communicate is English. Hyunbin see in Anna's eyes knowing that she has numerous unresolved feeling to say but don't want anyone to hear. He encourages her to dub words for passersby and to talk with him in Chinese.In this movie, you can't see any dramatic story. Neither is there sexy love scenes nor violent. All these details are skipped. Instead, it is about how to live para hoy while failing to forget the past.

This movie was pretty bad. I hadn't planned on writing a review for this ever because there was just too much to say but I guess I'll write it anyway. I usually love Korean movies and watch them all the time so I know the format.. they can be overly long and overly sentimental. I digress.The movie started out interesting. However quickly got WTF when Anna was let out of jail on so-called "compassionate leave" WITHOUT an escort OR ankle bracelet not to mention she was in jail for a VIOLENT CRIME. All they gave her was a cell phone to keep track of her (which they only called her twice). so that bothered me.why did they get such bad actors for Americans? all of them sounded like English wasn't their first language... that scene at the bumper cars.omg such bad acting... the scene went on WAYY too long and then that random dance that they did?! it was beautiful, and how it was edited but it had NO place in that movie and made NO sense what so ever! so they ran and were in some meat shop where it was bothering me that they had left the meat sitting out like that and the doors open?!and then, when anna was telling her story to hyunbin, he kept saying hao and hwey and was TOTALLY making everything she said "unserious" and i didn't feel bad for character. everyone in this movie fell flat... that kiss in the end WAS TOO LONG OMG. WTF was that! It was LITERALLY, over a minute long kiss scene. i kept looking at my watch waiting for that movie to be over.i could say more but who will read it? anyway. they tried to shove a comedy a drama and an indie art film into one movie and it DID NOT work.