One of my all time favorites.

Just so...so bad

Better Late Then Never

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Woman On The Beach is a South Korean movie presenting a movie director as the lead protagonist.It stars Kim Seung-Woo, Ko Hyun-Jung, Song Seon- Mi and Kim Tae-Woo.The movie is directed by Hong Sang-Su.Women On The Beach present Jung-Rae,who is a writer/director that needs to get away from the city environment to concentrate on his script. He asks his friend and coworker to drive him down to the coastal city of Shinduri. Unfortunately, his friend, Chang-Wook, already has plans for the evening…which includes a special date with a girl. The director, Jung-Rae, insists anyways and finally Chang-Wook agrees if he can bring his girlfriend, Moon-Sook. Jung-Rae says that is fine and they agree to go all together. Later that day when the director is picked up by Chang- Wook, he is introduced to his girlfriend, who happens to be a big fan of his work. Once they arrive in Shinduri the director and Moon-Sook become better acquainted and quickly become more attracted to each other. Moon- Sook tries to clarify to the director that she is only friends with Chang-Wook.Moon-Sook and the director soon find themselves sneaking out together at night and end up sleeping together at another hotel. The next day the director seems more uptight and makes it known that he is going back to Seoul because the beach town is too empty. He tells Moon-Sook that he needs some time to clear things out in his mind. The director soon returns back to Shinduri and calls Moon-Sook repeatedly on her cellphone. Even though she doesn't answer the phone, Jung-Rae leaves a message asking her to come back to Shinduri to see him. Soon after the phone call, the director comes across another lady near the beach that he believes resembles Moon-Sook. While they become more involved, Moon- Sook has now returned to Shinduri and the conflict of the main characters begin.Woman On The Beach presents a theme about the manipulation of women to suits one purpose.In this movie,the writer/director Joong-rae does it by getting involved with Moon-sook and Sun-hee through a one-night stand so as to regain his creativity and productivity in his work.It was sad that the film presents the viewer that women can be treated like garbage to regain one's vitality.That is what makes it look bad.Aside from that,the women involved are somewhat presented having their own "writer's block" as well as they themselves are amidst in their own confusion Joong-rae took advantage to make them his tools for his new screenplay.In the case of Moon-sook,she has yet to define clearly what her feelings are for the guy that she is currently involved with and the director that she is sleeping with.As for Sun-hee,she too is also in a state of confusion in terms of her relationship with soon-to-be ex- husband and the director that she is also sleeping with.Overall,it just sad that this character-driven plot has full of inconsistencies in terms of character with all the three ( Joong-rae, Moon-sook and Sun-hee) involved as all them are sort of in a state of confusion that the viewer will ultimately realize that one may tend not to fully appreciate this film.And worse of all,the movie ends without a closure among all three except for the fact that Joong-rae did succeed in his objective in writing a good script and he is truly proud what he has accomplished as well as what he has "accomplished" with his involvement with the two women in the beach.This is found in the end when he gave a call to Moon- sook telling her about his new script and suggesting to look for somebody he resembles to sleep with just like he did. The film maybe a comedy but the theme was never funny.

I confess to not having seen any of this director's films, but on the basis of this, I probably won't bother. This is the story of a writer/director with writers block who basically treats women like garbage so he can find his muse and regain his creativity. Actually, he treats just about everyone in this film like garbage.I guess it is hero worship, because I couldn't understand why these seemingly intelligent women would fall for this fairly obnoxious, boorish individual. Set on a resort beach in Korea seemingly out of season, there is very little to do, so the lead character becomes mean to everyone around him. Perhaps the maker of this film felt the point was that there are two kinds of people, those who give and those who take. The two women the lead character spends time with are pathetic. I had high hopes for the character Moonsook, who in the beginning showed promise. She should have been a stronger character. The director keeps calling her very pretty/beautiful (see is pretty, but not beautiful), but then he treats her like dirt, calling her stupid twice. He gives writers a bad name. If the filmmaker's idea was to assuage some guilt he himself has, fine. He should have made a better film. This film is full of forced, vacuous dialog. I know I'll probably be in the minority on the opinion on this film, but I am a big Asian film fan and this one left me cold. Many times I pondered leaving the theater. In the audience of about 20 people there were maybe three chuckles from the dialog. I'd like to see the actress who plays Moonsook in another role. She probably is a good actress, but her character is useless. I shook my head a little at the people who were waiting in line for the next showing. If you're a fan of this filmmaker, maybe you're used to his kind of storytelling. I wanted to like it, and the reviews were mostly favorable. Mine isn't, regrettably.

Where Hong Sang-soo's dramas differ from Eric Rohmer's, other than all the ways that come with being Korean not French, is notably in the egotism mitigated by irony of having one the main characters in his movies often happen to be a handsome, hunky famous director. In this one it's a "Director Kim," as he's respectfully addressed (Kim Joong-rae, played by Kim Seung-woo) who goes to the somewhat sterile environment of the semi-deserted Shinduri beach resort on Korea's west coast with his production designer, Won Chang-wook (Kim Tae-woo) in hopes of ending a creative block and penning the treatment for his next film. Won brings along a girlfriend, composer Kim Moon-sook (Ko Hyun-joung, a former TV star) and competition gets blatantly going when Director Kim takes Moon-sook aside and frankly says he's interested in her and asks her whether she'd prefer him over the designer, given a free choice.The blatancy of Joong-rae's authority is underlined by his being older, better-looking, physically bigger and stronger-looking, and possessed of a deeper voice. In comparison Won's a mild, slightly nerdy fellow. But despite that, Joong-rae's not an out-and-out winner. He's comically chauvinistic in the way he damns the lady's music with faint praise. And in the time that follows he proves to be neurotic and indecisive, stuffing his hands in his jeans and wiggling around on his legs with comic unease. Moon-sook's dating men when living in Germany he admits is a turn-on for temporary dating, but the opposite for a long-term relationship. He has a serious hangup about mating with a woman who's experienced. Like a good Eric Rohmer character, he hesitates and they discuss. Moon-sook winds up saying that he's wonderful to her as a director, but in other ways just "a typical Korean man." Hong's stories often refer to sex and show couples in bed, but they aren't erotic and characters rarely go all the way. Kim and Moon-sook do however begin with some long kisses on the beach that evening.At another point Director Kim has a violent outburst of anger at a restaurant the trio enters because the owners are half asleep when they come in, and Chang-wook gets equally over-the-top in anger over the injustice of this and insists Kim must apologize. This seems random, except to show that both men have little control over their male egos, and tend to flail about, while the lady remains cool and composed.In spite of all this Moon-sook becomes fascinated with Kim and they spent a night in an empty hotel room, but the next day Kim says it's too quiet for him to work and they all leave Shinduri. Two days later Kim's back on his own though, and leaves a phone message with Moon-sook, regretting his indecisiveness. He "interviews" a woman he runs into who "reminds" him of Moon-sook and takes her up to the same room he was in two nights earlier. Things get complicated when Moon-sook herself reappears and has a drunken emotional outburst outside the room. The new woman eventually feels hurt and abandoned too. In the midst of all this there's a cute dog that gets abandoned by a mysterious couple, and Director Kim pulls an "unused muscle" and is temporarily disabled. Lots of snacking and drinking to a drunken state accompanies all these developments. By himself and with his leg semi-paralyzed Kim somehow turns out the film treatment. The relationships seem unresolved, but Moon-sook is by herself at the end leaving Shinduri again in her little car, which symbolically gets stuck in the sand and then gets out again so she can drive off on her own, free.Woman on the Beach differs from previous Hong films in presenting its few main characters in the relative isolation of this new, somewhat drab resort during a cold spring season. The atmosphere is well used and the scenes are vivid. This film of Hong's is perhaps even more inconclusive than most, and a bit long, but the rhythms of the conversations and the clarity of the blocking and editing arouse one's admiration and this, like all Hong's films, is original and watchable and will not disappoint his fans – which include the selection committee of the Film Society of Lincoln Center: they've been choosing his latest film as one of the NYFF's primary offerings every year for three years in a row. It's also true that Hong's improvisational way of working always results in fluid, convincing performances by his actors.

There are only a handful of filmmakers working today of whom it can truly be said that each film of theirs takes us into a world instantly recognizable as the product of that filmmakers' mind. Claire Denis certainly comes to mind, as do such masters as Aleksandr Sokurov, Kim Ki-duk, Tsai Ming-liang, Catherine Breillat, and Michael Haneke. Although his films haven't rec'd the same distribution in the U.S. as those esteemed names mentioned above, add Hong Sang-soo to that list. I've loved everything I've seen from him -- especially Woman Is The Future of Man -- but it was seeing Woman on the Beach recently at the Toronto Film Festival that confirmed him in my mind as one of the most assured hands in film today. His vision of modern life -- neurotic, self-obsessed urban adults still struggling with childish hang-ups as they attempt to balance careers and relationships with lust and alcoholism -- comes through vividly in this film, first with washes of warm humor and later with squrim-worthy insights into modern relationships. It's tempting to make a comparison to Woody Allen in his late-'70s prime, and yet the humor here is subtler and more complex, with a sly contemporary sophistication all its own -- and the humor gives way to resonant drama more naturally than in most of Allen's work. Some characters get only a minute or two of screen time, yet feel more alive to me than leading characters in lesser films. What's more, it's also an exquisitely shot film, with an emotionally evocative setting likely to stick in your mind long after the lights come up. Other than Apichatpong Weerasethakul's "Syndromes and a Century," a film just as effective and affecting (although in very different ways), "Woman on the Beach" was the film that stood out to me the most from the 15 or so I saw at this year's Toronto Int'l Film Fest. Both films are film-art of the highest order, the kind of rich, challenging art-house fare that Wellspring would have given a U.S. theatrical run were they still around. Perhaps someone else will step up to the plate -- Palm Pictures, maybe, or Plexifilm? Here's hoping; movies like this one deserve to be seen all over the world -- and not just on home video!