Toronto. Treeless Mountain.

"For lovers of both the whimsical freeform and bittersweet intimate films of Studio Ghibli (My Neighbor Tortoro and Grave of the Fireflies, for instance), there will be a lot to love in So Yong Kim's semi-autobiographical childhood film Treeless Mountain," writes Kurt Halfyard at Twitch.

"It makes a finely articulated plea for the rejuvenating aspects of simple living over urban malaise; but more importantly, it is a showcase for the fragile dignity of children."

Updated through 9/10.

"As with In Between Days, Kim tapped into her past for her sophomore film, though she hasn't let memory distort her perspective," writes Michael Tully at Hammer to Nail. "This is one of her greatest gifts as a filmmaker. In Between Days and Treeless Mountain are both deeply personal works, yet they never reek of autobiography. After having attended countless film festivals for the past several years, it is refreshing to discover a young writer/director who seems to have been born with a natural ability to balance filmmaker objectivity and emotional subjectivity so effortlessly."

"An autobiographical feature about two tiny girls sent to live with distant relatives by their caring but insolvent mother, Treeless Mountain is a sparse but incredibly moving film about love turning to longing turning to resentment, and if I as a total outsider could barely hold back tears whilst watching it, I can only imagine the strength required to pull such a story from one's own life and throw it up on a screen," writes Karina Longworth at the SpoutBlog. "Hands down, the thing that makes Mountain a Toronto must-see is the performances, which are all the more impressive considering the fact that the film's two young stars are non-actors."

"Treeless Mountain suffers some in comparison to Hirokazu Kore-Eda's poetic, heartbreaking Nobody Knows (which has a similar premise), but it's still hard to watch these sad, cute little faces as their world falls apart and not get a little torn up about it," writes Noel Murray at the AV Club. "And Kim's aesthetic is arguably more effective here than it was in her debut, as she makes plastic toys look like talismans and adult faces look almost mythical in their kindness or indifference. At times, Treeless Mountain feels like a fairy tale without the magic."

Update, 9/10: "The triumph here is that, where Kore-eda's [Nobody Knows] played the same note, the same story again and again for its long run-time, Kim So Yong's second film... finds both freshness and solace in literally keeping the focus tight on the children," writes Daniel Kasman in the Auteurs' Notebook. "It is structured by ellipses between day-to-day events - the ingenuity of barbecuing and selling grasshoppers to neighborhood children so that the sisters can fill their being a highlight - and kept strong by the two girl actresses."

Posted by dwhudson at September 9, 2008 2:21 PM