Jithin K Mohan My first Hong was ..Turning Gate which was ok for me but never understood the hype of it and when I heard most of his films are like that I wasn't so keen to watch his rest. But here I understand his style better, basically, it's the same theme as the former where people get confused and misunderstood in love and friendship and when they turn into lust for a faster relief it's still unfulfilling and men and women never understand each other. But I still think this could have been a masterpiece with better craft.

Steve Rigby This is my third Sang Soo Hong flick, and quite probably my last. After A Virgin Stripped Bare..., A Woman on the Beach and now Woman Future, I was amazed by how they are all THE SAME STORY! A movie director (come on, Hong - there are other types of people in the world) has sex with girl(s)(come on, Hong - there are other types of things people do with other people in the world),gets drunk and abusive, making a scene in a restaurant (come on, Hong - there are ways in which people's characters and frustrations can be revealed without going over-the-emotional-top each time)and then,.... Nothing! No end of resolution or point to the film. And unlike other reviewers who found this (and I paraphrase) 'a deft, fragile touch at portraying the inconclusiveness of much of real life', I found it an inevitable corollary of having nothing real to say except what you navel-gazed and fantasized about in your life as a movie director/chaser of women/drunk. In Woman Future, the main character (here, an art professor) meets a new woman with 12 minutes to go in the film, has a form of sex and then says goodbye as she catches a cab. What? No conclusion was reached either here or with respect to his relations with his film director friend or their mutual girlfriend. Even his sex scenes have no development. The couple walk down the hall. Cut. The couple are now naked in bed, thrusting. (come on, Hong - there is such a thing as seduction, and the art of romance). The real clincher for me about the similarity of these 'films' was clicking the 'People who liked this also liked...' section on the IMDb page for this film. There, I found twelve more titles of Hong films, with a capsule plot sketch of each. And they're all the same! Some artist (usually a movie director)has a friend. Their stories get entwined with those of a woman. Again, and again, and again. How does this guy get the $ to do this again and again and again? 3/10

gonzaga ext It's been a while since I watched the amusingly titled "Woman is the Future of Man" at the Quad. More than a year and 2 Hong Sang-Soo films later it remains among my favorite films.While it's always refreshing and welcome to see films depart from the pyrotechnics of the Hollywood school of film-making, some films' subtlety and quietness are rather oppressive (Tsai Ming-Liang immediately comes to mind). I think I have a longer attention span than the average film-goer, however, I have to admit that I can't sit through all kinds of slow films. Some are worth the challenge, others end up embodying the stereotype of the inaccessible art film. Hong's film would've looked like art house snobbery in action if not for the fact that it's made in a very straightforward manner focusing mainly on the most basic of emotions (and the complicated situations emanating from them). The style of film-making is so cinema verite, so unobtrusive, it's a joy to go beyond being a member of the audience and feel like an actual passerby. The best, most memorable celluloid stories stay in your mind as films but "Woman" is a story so well-told it feels more like snippets from somebody's life told by a close friend.Hong Sang-soo's "Woman is the Future of Man" is yet another great addition to the impressive national cinema of South Korea and one that pushes me to continue exploring more of this body of work. It's raw, naked jealousy, regret, love, lust, and longing. It's a bittersweet reminder for anyone who's ever experienced romantic love and its many variations and deviations. This is it how it happens and somehow Mr. Hong has captured it through the magic of cinema.

newjcubed A classic film that should be seen by everyone. Okay I'm a little biased since I was an extra in the film. You can see my glorious side profile and backside walk behind the two main actors during the airport scene. Director Hong Sang Soo is a genius and this movie is as good if not better than the Turning gate and Oh Soyoung. The ending scene was perfect if you were one of the few that paid attention to the movie. I was amazed by Korean audiences that after seeing the final scene sighed a collective "Huh?" It was of course a failure in Korea because despite some good films coming from that country most Koreans enjoy formulaic sappy love comedies. Let's hope that Hong Sang Soo doesn't take this commercial failure to heart. He is a great director and a true genius.