Ostensibly an erotic romance movie, Love, In Between is better classified as emotional voyeurism. Han So-yeong (Sin Eun-kyeong) is a happily married, slightly neurotic gynecologist who discovers that her dashing architect husband Yoon Ji-Seok (Jung Joon-Ho) is having a little something extra on the side with his whimsical post-grad student Choi Soo-ji (Sim I-yeong). Sexually explicit nudity ensues, as well as jealousy, paranoia and friendship, which inadvertently grows between So-yeong and Soo-ji.
It is this improbable element of female solidarity and friendship that actually allows Love, In Between to function as more than just an Asian remake of Fatal Attraction. The emotional turmoil of the female leads is solidly portrayed, as is their complicated interactions with each other.
Sadly, however, the film`s characterisation of its male protagonist is not as well explored, with Ji-Seok`s motivation for being the hypocritical douchebag left highly opaque. While one may sympathise with the feminist bent of the movie, its passive-aggressive portrayal of all its male characters as cheating scumbags may leave male viewers feeling slightly alienated, as if they were watching The Vagina Monologues, or in a seminar filled with ultra-radical feminists, brassieres aflame.
The film is as problematic in terms of execution as it is in its thematic concerns: certain moments of nudity help to convey a sense of rawness and emotional vulnerability, but its overt sex scenes contribute little to the overall picture, and verge on gratuitous. In a similar vein, the film`s decent camera work is marred by a heavy-handed score that screams the emotion that the scene is supposed to evoke at its viewers.
Like its portrayal of its slightly dissociative female protagonist, Love, In Between is a confusing (some would say confused) film that occasionally veers into melodrama but still manages to engage with its sensitivity.
Recommended for those who like to leave a cinema dazed and confused.
Raphael Lim