Desertman84 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.

charlytully "Oh, my face is too big; I want to cut some of it off." "I'm too tall. I wish I could chop my legs short.""How is it all our ugliest girls go to Europe and they're suddenly popular?""I know you think Europeans have bigger cocks than {South Korean} men."To counter these four quotes (my own translations) that stand out in this film (the first two from female characters, the latter pair from men), I'd like to pose a query of my own: why is it American flicks often feature actors in their late twenties playing high school kids, while Asian fare such as WOMAN ON THE BEACH focuses on people behaving (and sort of looking) like middle-schoolers pretending to be grown people with jobs???

Roland E. Zwick Needing a quiet, relaxing environment in which to complete the script for his latest film, well-known director Kim Jung-rae heads to a largely deserted seaside resort with his friend, Won Chang-wook, and Won's beautiful girlfriend, Kim Mun-suk. Tensions quickly develop when Kim and Mun-suk become romantically involved with one another, leaving the erstwhile Won as essentially odd-man-out. Yet, terrified of making any kind of long term commitment, Kim backs away from Mun-suk at a crucial moment, causing a serious rupture in their relationship. It's only after a second woman comes into the picture that Mun-suk returns to the beach town, further complicating Kim's already complicated life - though providing possible fodder for the script he's having such a hard time completing.Slow-moving, episodic and hypnotic, the Korean drama "Woman on the Beach" is wonderfully perceptive about human nature and the multi-faceted and complex ways in which people relate to one another. It's virtually impossible to pigeonhole any of the characters since they often act and react in ways that surprise and intrigue us. Director Sang-soo Hong relies largely on extended conversations to tell his story, an approach which allows the drama to unfold in a thoroughly naturalistic fashion, without having to resort to melodrama or contrivance to get its points across. To that end, the movie is filled with numerous seemingly irrelevant, off-the-cuff moments (including the final scene) that add immeasurably to the verisimilitude of the piece. As a result, every moment in the film feels unscripted and real, an illusion greatly enhanced by the excellent performances of Seung-woo Kim, Hyun-jung Go, Seon-mi Song and Tae-woo Kim.Finally, the shuttered hotels and sparsely populated beaches and boardwalks provide an eerily appropriate backdrop for this tale of an individual so haunted by the demons and ghosts of his own past that he finds it difficult to live in the present.

erahatch 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!