Shim Eun-kyung, who plays the main character Lee, said she was left speechless when she first saw the film.
"Maybe it's because it was such a mysterious film, something I'd never seen before. I think it was when I saw it the second time that I finally felt like I could say something about it. That's when I felt, 'This is a film about experience.' Through the character I play, Li, anyone can become the protagonist. I think that's beautiful."
Without a story, there's nothing to be done.
(Lee)
Shim cited the scene where Lee trudges along a snowy road as a beautiful scene. The winter version also has other silent film-like scenes, such as when Lee frantically chases after his hat that has been blown away in a snowstorm, and it has the humor of a Chaplin comedy.
What particularly impressed me was one of Lee's "movements" that Shim placed great importance on when acting.
"I was influenced by silent films, including those by Buster Keaton and Chaplin. In consultation with Director Miyake, I decided to make delicate adjustments and try to see how much I could express through 'movement'. One such scene is one in which Lee walks along a snowy road. The road is not originally a sidewalk, so it is in poor condition, and his walking style is a little strange. Lee travels, worrying about how he should live his life from now on, and I felt that these strange 'movements' contained a beautiful message from Director Miyake himself: no matter how clumsy you may be, try your best to live your life in your own way."
The film opens with Lee (Shim Eun-kyung), a Korean screenwriter working in Tokyo, scribbling down words on manuscript paper. The story she is writing is set on a summer island surrounded by the sea. While daydreaming on this island, her mother's hometown, Natsuo (Takada Mansaku) meets a mysterious woman named Nagisa (Kawai Yumi) on the beach. The two part ways, promising to meet again, and the next day, they enjoy a precarious swim in the ocean amid a pouring rain... As she watches the film adaptation of this story on the big screen, Lee is painfully aware of her own lack of talent. Realizing she is in a slump, she travels to a snowy mountain village. She ends up staying at an old inn run by a lonely man named Benzo (Tsutsumi Shinichi), and listens to him tell her stories about his family. One night, Benzo takes Lee out into the snowy countryside to show her a pond filled with koi carp...
