Woman on the Beach

Hong Sang-soo is now Korea’s best regarded director on the international festival circuit, where he has established a reputation as a kind of Eric Rohmer of Asian cinema. Like Rohmer, his films are variations on a theme, and his standard scene is built around conversation which conceals its ironic moral sting in its tail. Hong’s major theme is the vanity of men in pursuit of women. His protagonists (who are usually filmmakers) generally succeed in their erotic conquests, though their sense of self-satisfaction typically lies in ruins by the end of the film. They attempt to seduce women only to discover that they don’t really know what they are dealing with. In the depths of women, they discover only their own shallowness. In this film, director Jung-rae pursues two women, serially and then simultaneously, at a beachside resort. As the action progresses, the women turn out to be much more interesting characters so that the tables are well and truly turned as a story about a man and two women turns out to have been about a woman’s choices between two men.

It perfectly satisfies every cinematic desire, from stimulating, original storytelling and air-tight scripts to spontaneous style, engaging performances and all-around elegance...He makes seemingly ordinary tales of love and life reveal the complexity - and the unpleasantness - of human relationships beneath their candid surface.

Giovanna Fulvi, Toronto International Film Festival