What this movie intends to do -- to create a troubling dissonance in the viewer through subtle and realistic scenes of claustrophobic alienation -- it does remarkably well. The acting, the script, the camera-work is all spot-on.

Unfortunately, its deft touch left me feeling deeply depressed. This film's manifesto seems to be that none of us can ever truly connect to anybody else. No attempt at love (friendship, devotion, or romance) can ever successfully overcome the barriers between people because of our different lives and circumstances, regardless of whether we share the same culture or not.

It's like an entire film of watching people cling to a life raft, only to discover that no rescue is possible regardless of what they do, or where they go.

How completely depressing a lesson.