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Review

Director Hong Sang-soo is arguably South Korea’s most critically acclaimed filmmaker, and in the last few years this festival has screened much of his recent work, including Turning Gate and Woman Is the Future of Man. Hong’s newest film, Woman on the Beach, has been an international festival favorite in Toronto, New York and Berlin for good reason: Woman is not only his most accessible film to date but perhaps also his best. If the careful pacing and Rohmer comparisons scared you away from Hong in the past, then this is the perfect place to fall in love with this exceptional filmmaker. Joong-rae, a film director, travels to the seaside town of Shinduri with his production designer, Chang-wook, in order to finish his overdue screenplay. Chang-wook brings his female friend, composer Moon-sook, and Joong-rae soon falls in love with the young woman. The director’s egocentric and chauvinistic nature interferes, however, and the couple drift apart. Still in Shinduri, Joong-rae falls for another woman, Sun-hee, because she reminds him of Moon-sook; but then Moon-sook herself reappears in the resort town. The director is unable to be honest with either woman, and they are forced to ponder whether they want to be honest with each other instead. While this is perhaps Hong’s wittiest film yet, it never tips into simplistic romantic farce; the filmmaker instead remains principally interested in creating a perceptive and poignant analysis of the longing and uncertainty that face anyone confronted with sudden romance, passion and jealousy. A major work from a major director. (Korean with English subtitles)

 -- Travis Crawford