Reviewing Hong Sang-soo’s films is actually an effort in finding the elements that separate each movie from the rest, since the Korean’s oeuvre is rather homogenous. This time, the difference derives from some role-reversals elements, and the function of the female protagonists in the narrative, who, in this case, frequently act as men.
Woman on the Beach is streaming on Mubi
Film director and screenwriter Kim Jung-rae asks his friend Won Chang-wook to drive with him from their homes in Seoul to the resort town of Shinduri, on the western coast of South Korea. Chang-wook initially resists, but accepts the request on the condition that he can bring Kim Mun-suk, a composer and aspiring singer whom he describes as being his girlfriend. Jung-rae is writing a treatment for a film titled “About Miracles,” concerning the mysterious connections that secure everyday life. That Jung-rae does not care particularly that...
Woman on the Beach is streaming on Mubi
Film director and screenwriter Kim Jung-rae asks his friend Won Chang-wook to drive with him from their homes in Seoul to the resort town of Shinduri, on the western coast of South Korea. Chang-wook initially resists, but accepts the request on the condition that he can bring Kim Mun-suk, a composer and aspiring singer whom he describes as being his girlfriend. Jung-rae is writing a treatment for a film titled “About Miracles,” concerning the mysterious connections that secure everyday life. That Jung-rae does not care particularly that...
- 2/9/2021
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
22nd Mar del Plata Film Festival Awards - 2007 The 22nd Mar del Plata Film Festival Award was held between Mar-8-18, 2007. The 22nd Mar del Plata Film Festival Award winners were announced on Mar. 18, 2007. Directed by Cesc Gay, Fiction tells the story of a film director who, while resting at a friends home in a small mountain village, meets a violin player with whom he develops a delusional relationship. Gay and Tomás Aragay penned the screenplay. In the cast: Eduard Fernández, Javier Cámara, Montse Germán, Carmen Pla, Ágata Roca Official Competition Golden Astor for Best feature FICCIÓ (Spain, directed by Cesc Gay) Special Mention Jardins En Automne (France-Italy-Russia, directed by Otar Iosseliani) Silver Astor for Best Director (tie) Marina Spada (Come l´ombra, Italy) Hong Sang-soo (Woman on the Beach, South Korea) Silver Astor for Best Actress Sandra HÜLLER (Madonnas, Germany-Switzerland-Belgium, directed by María Speth) Silver Astor for Best Actor Carlos Resta (La Peli,...
- 5/12/2017
- by altfilmguide
- Alt Film Guide
South Korean sales outfit will represent the production company’s films.
South Korean sales company Finecut has pacted with Oh Jung-wan’s Bom Film Productions to represent their films internationally.
Oh established Bom Film Productions in 1999, contributing to the renaissance of Korean cinema with acclaimed, commercially successful films from directors such as Kim Jee-woon, E J-yong, Hong Sangsoo, Park Chan-wook and Park Jin-pyo.
Finecut will rep Bom titles such as Hong Sangsoo’s Night And Day (pictured) and Woman On The Beach; Kim Jee-woon’s The Foul King, A Tale Of Two Sisters and A Bittersweet Life; Park Chan-wook’s short film Cut from the Three… Extremes omnibus; and E J-yong’s Untold Scandal.
Although Bom has no new titles for Filmart, Finecut is here selling films such as Park Hoon-jung’s crime thriller V.I.P., starring Jang Dong-gun, Cho Sun-ho’s mystery drama A Day and Lim Dae-woong’s mystery thriller House Of The...
South Korean sales company Finecut has pacted with Oh Jung-wan’s Bom Film Productions to represent their films internationally.
Oh established Bom Film Productions in 1999, contributing to the renaissance of Korean cinema with acclaimed, commercially successful films from directors such as Kim Jee-woon, E J-yong, Hong Sangsoo, Park Chan-wook and Park Jin-pyo.
Finecut will rep Bom titles such as Hong Sangsoo’s Night And Day (pictured) and Woman On The Beach; Kim Jee-woon’s The Foul King, A Tale Of Two Sisters and A Bittersweet Life; Park Chan-wook’s short film Cut from the Three… Extremes omnibus; and E J-yong’s Untold Scandal.
Although Bom has no new titles for Filmart, Finecut is here selling films such as Park Hoon-jung’s crime thriller V.I.P., starring Jang Dong-gun, Cho Sun-ho’s mystery drama A Day and Lim Dae-woong’s mystery thriller House Of The...
- 3/13/2017
- by hjnoh2007@gmail.com (Jean Noh)
- ScreenDaily
Since any New York cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it’d be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city’s most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you’re not likely to see in a theater again anytime soon, and many of which are, also, on 35mm. If you have a chance to attend any of these, we’re of the mind that it’s time extremely well-spent.
Metrograph
It’s a very De Palma weekend, with Dressed to Kill showing this Friday, Scarface and Blow Out on Saturday, and The Fury this Sunday.
Looney Tunes: Back In Action screens on Saturday.
Underground New York filmmaker Beth B. is celebrated in a weekend-long retrospective.
A new 16mm print of Kapauku plays on Sunday.
BAMcinématek...
Metrograph
It’s a very De Palma weekend, with Dressed to Kill showing this Friday, Scarface and Blow Out on Saturday, and The Fury this Sunday.
Looney Tunes: Back In Action screens on Saturday.
Underground New York filmmaker Beth B. is celebrated in a weekend-long retrospective.
A new 16mm print of Kapauku plays on Sunday.
BAMcinématek...
- 6/10/2016
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Unless you're jonesing for the new seasons of Kelsey Grammar's "Boss" and BBC's "Merlin," or the stand-up comedy of Gabriel "Fluffy" Iglesias, it's undeniably a weak week for home-video headliners. Bill Murray's Fdr impression is more sit-down (and hold the comedy) in the middlebrow, miscalculated crowd-pleaser "Hyde Park on Hudson," and even the Jet Li action-fantasy spectacle "The Sorcerer and the White Snake" can't be saved by glossy production design or fizzy CGI effects from becoming a silly, swollen mess. Per usual, you're better off feeding your eyes and ears on indie and international cuisines: "In Another Country" (Kino Lorber) Typically, the films of prolific South Korean auteur Hong Sang-soo ("The Day He Arrives," "Woman on the Beach," "Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors") have certain trademarks, from self-consciously segmented structures and awkward zooms (the latter appearing in most of his films since 2005's "Tale of Cinema"), to themes of masculine.
- 4/9/2013
- by Aaron Hillis
- Indiewire
After the Cannes line-up unveiling last week, all eyes are on the 16th of May when the cinematic world turns its attention to the south of France. We've already been getting a few early glimpses at numerous films headed to the fest with a couple more peeks arriving today for Hong Sang-soo's "In Another Country" and Joachim Lafosse's "Loving Without Reason."
First up is Hong's collaboration with French thesp Isabelle Huppert, who'll play three different characters named Anne who consecutively visit a seaside town, stay at the same small hotel by the shore, venture onto the beach and meet the same group of people, including a certain lifeguard who restlessly wanders up and down the beach. Pictured above is Huppert with Moon Seong-geun ("Woman on the Beach") with a handful of previous Hong collaborators on board, including Yu Jun-Sang, Moon So-ri, Yoon Yeo-jeong and Jeong Yu-mi. It's the...
First up is Hong's collaboration with French thesp Isabelle Huppert, who'll play three different characters named Anne who consecutively visit a seaside town, stay at the same small hotel by the shore, venture onto the beach and meet the same group of people, including a certain lifeguard who restlessly wanders up and down the beach. Pictured above is Huppert with Moon Seong-geun ("Woman on the Beach") with a handful of previous Hong collaborators on board, including Yu Jun-Sang, Moon So-ri, Yoon Yeo-jeong and Jeong Yu-mi. It's the...
- 4/22/2012
- by Simon Dang
- The Playlist
In the new March 2012 issue of the Brooklyn Rail, Colin Beckett previews a "five-film retrospective sampler" of work by Hong Sang-soo running at the Museum of the Moving Image from March 17 through 23: "Wherever his characters go, be it Paris or a Korean resort town, they do the same things: arrange themselves in complicated love triangles, treat others poorly, drink too much, then treat each other even worse. His deliberately artificial camera movements — long pans back and forth, and half-motivated zooms, mostly — treat real space the way a camera usually approaches a photograph or a painting: flattening it, drawing horizontal and diagonal lines to map its elements. He is concerned with atmosphere in the literal sense: the particular qualities of light and air in the types of spaces to which he obsessively returns: beaches, restaurants, apartments."
Hong's Tale of Cinema (2005) is not one of the five (which, by the way,...
Hong's Tale of Cinema (2005) is not one of the five (which, by the way,...
- 3/4/2012
- MUBI
Miss Conspirator is an upcoming Korean action comedy by director Park Chul Kwan, who helmed the hugely popular 2002 comedy hit Hi, Dharma. Playing the lead role is acclaimed actress Ko Hyeon-jeong (Woman On The Beach, Actresses). Actor Park Shin-yang is also in the film and this is the first time he has returned to the big screen in 4 years. He and the director worked together in Hi, Dharma 10 years ago. Synopsis: A woman with panic disorder accidently throws away some drugs that were given to her and ends up looking for them with a crime organization while the police are chasing after them. I am a big fan of Korean gangster comedies like My Wife Is A Gangster, and Miss Conspirator...
- 2/18/2012
- Screen Anarchy
by Vadim Rizov
Hong Sang-soo's films riff off of and build upon each other, which makes it unfortunate that 2008's Night and Day is one of only four Hong films to see an American DVD release. A key shift took place in 2005's A Tale of Cinema, which introduced voiceover and zoom lenses to his work, elements which he's wielded with increasing aggression since. Before 2005, it's safe to generalize that his films dealt in semi-tragic depictions of men callously taking sexual advantage of women without much agency or say in the matter. 2006's Woman on the Beach ends with said female pushing her stalled car over the sand (a physical, non-precious metaphor for Doing It Herself), and subsequent films have been bolder at both reusing the same basic plot ingredients—a confused film director, a love triangle/quadrangle, no real resolution, overlapping cast members—and giving women the final say.
Hong Sang-soo's films riff off of and build upon each other, which makes it unfortunate that 2008's Night and Day is one of only four Hong films to see an American DVD release. A key shift took place in 2005's A Tale of Cinema, which introduced voiceover and zoom lenses to his work, elements which he's wielded with increasing aggression since. Before 2005, it's safe to generalize that his films dealt in semi-tragic depictions of men callously taking sexual advantage of women without much agency or say in the matter. 2006's Woman on the Beach ends with said female pushing her stalled car over the sand (a physical, non-precious metaphor for Doing It Herself), and subsequent films have been bolder at both reusing the same basic plot ingredients—a confused film director, a love triangle/quadrangle, no real resolution, overlapping cast members—and giving women the final say.
- 1/10/2012
- GreenCine Daily
Alex BBats here, dishing about about a film that has been on Nathaniel’s must-see radar, the South Korean film The Actresses. (Nathaniel, you will Love this film!)
The Actresses recently screened in Los Angeles at the Korean Cultural Center Los Angeles as a part of their bi-monthly film-screening program. Though it is usually a projected DVD affair, it is free and I have fond memories of this venue because it was the first place I saw a movie in La. Jail Breakers, four long years ago …good times. If you’re in the La area, why not give it a shot (hint: cheap date night).
Time passing is one of the main topics of discussion in The Actresses. Get ready for lots of discussion, because that’s all that happens. Six actresses ranging from 20 to 60 years old get together to talk about acting, public pressures, rivals, boys, failed marriages,...
The Actresses recently screened in Los Angeles at the Korean Cultural Center Los Angeles as a part of their bi-monthly film-screening program. Though it is usually a projected DVD affair, it is free and I have fond memories of this venue because it was the first place I saw a movie in La. Jail Breakers, four long years ago …good times. If you’re in the La area, why not give it a shot (hint: cheap date night).
Time passing is one of the main topics of discussion in The Actresses. Get ready for lots of discussion, because that’s all that happens. Six actresses ranging from 20 to 60 years old get together to talk about acting, public pressures, rivals, boys, failed marriages,...
- 10/15/2011
- by Alex Barbatsis
- FilmExperience
Acclaimed master auteur of Korean indie cinema Hong Sang Soo returns with “Oki’s Movie”, another unconventional film dealing with life, love and drinking. Split into four parts, the film is a complex, overlapping affair very much in the director’s trademark style and stars regular Hong collaborator Jung Yoo Mi (recently in his excellent “Ha Ha Ha”) in the titular role, along with Lee Seon Gyun (“Night and Day”) and Moon Sung Keun (“Woman on the Beach”). As always with Hong, the film enjoyed a critically successful run at international festivals, including being chosen as the closing film for the Horizons section of the 67th Venice Film Festival. The film kicks off with “A Day for Incantation” following bumbling indie film maker Jingu (Lee Seon Gyun) as he runs into trouble with his wife Oki (Jung Yoo Mi), suspecting that she may be losing interest in him. Partly this...
- 2/17/2011
- by James Mudge
- Beyond Hollywood
Hong Sang Soo, Korean writer director of acclaimed indie films “Tale of Cinema” and “Woman on the Beach” returns with “HaHaHa”, another offbeat look at modern life, following a conversation between two friends as they reminisce about an unknowingly shared holiday. Although still instantly recognisable as being in Hong’s trademark structured style, the film is a markedly lighter and more naturalistic piece of work, making it far more accessible for the average viewer. This different approach proved successful, with the film bringing home the coveted top prize at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard section, a remarkable achievement for such an unassuming lo-fi Korean production. The film basically revolves around two men, sitting at an outdoor bar and drinking rice wine while trading memories about past trips to the picturesque port town of Tongyeong, told in flashback and with them taking a sip and toasting each...
- 11/20/2010
- by James Mudge
- Beyond Hollywood
Our thanks to Christopher Bourne for the review]
"Curb Your Enthusiasm meets Korean TV drama" could be the tagline for E J-yong's delightful Actresses, a semi-improvised comedy/drama featuring a sextet of actresses - Yoon Yeo-jeong (A Good Lawyer's Wife, The President's Last Bang, The Housemaid), Lee Mi-sook (An Affair, Untold Scandal, Hellcats), Choi Ji-woo (Winter Sonata, The Romantic President, Everybody Has Secrets), Ko Hyun-jung (Woman on the Beach, Like You Know It All), Kim Min-hee (Hellcats), and Kim Ok-vin (Dasepo Naughty Girls, Thirst) - all "playing themselves." (I'll explain the quotes later.) The entire film takes place during a Vogue fashion shoot on Christmas Eve, teasing out the camaraderie and conflicts that arise among these strong women with equally strong egos. The action plays out in near-real time, faux-documentary style. The actresses are a cross-section of different generations: Kim Ok-vin and Kim Min-hee are the youngest, in their 20's...
"Curb Your Enthusiasm meets Korean TV drama" could be the tagline for E J-yong's delightful Actresses, a semi-improvised comedy/drama featuring a sextet of actresses - Yoon Yeo-jeong (A Good Lawyer's Wife, The President's Last Bang, The Housemaid), Lee Mi-sook (An Affair, Untold Scandal, Hellcats), Choi Ji-woo (Winter Sonata, The Romantic President, Everybody Has Secrets), Ko Hyun-jung (Woman on the Beach, Like You Know It All), Kim Min-hee (Hellcats), and Kim Ok-vin (Dasepo Naughty Girls, Thirst) - all "playing themselves." (I'll explain the quotes later.) The entire film takes place during a Vogue fashion shoot on Christmas Eve, teasing out the camaraderie and conflicts that arise among these strong women with equally strong egos. The action plays out in near-real time, faux-documentary style. The actresses are a cross-section of different generations: Kim Ok-vin and Kim Min-hee are the youngest, in their 20's...
- 7/2/2010
- Screen Anarchy
South Korean comedy Hahaha (no, we’re not laughing, that’s the title of the winner!) received the top prize during the Un Certain Regard section of the 63rd annual Cannes Film Festival!
Hahaha
So, Asia picked up its first Cannes honors on Saturday, and director Hong Sangsoo has a lot of reasons to be satisfied. That’s why we’re here today to have a little chat about his interesting project, and to share the rest of winners in this category….
The latest film by Hong Sang-soo is about “old buddies Mun-kyeong and Jung-sik who reunite after a long time. They realize that they both recently travelled to Tongyeong, where they each got involved in a series of romantic mishaps. It turns out however that they crossed paths with the same people”.
Official Hahaha synopsis: Filmmaker Jo Munkyung plans to leave Seoul to live in Canada. So days before his departure,...
Hahaha
So, Asia picked up its first Cannes honors on Saturday, and director Hong Sangsoo has a lot of reasons to be satisfied. That’s why we’re here today to have a little chat about his interesting project, and to share the rest of winners in this category….
The latest film by Hong Sang-soo is about “old buddies Mun-kyeong and Jung-sik who reunite after a long time. They realize that they both recently travelled to Tongyeong, where they each got involved in a series of romantic mishaps. It turns out however that they crossed paths with the same people”.
Official Hahaha synopsis: Filmmaker Jo Munkyung plans to leave Seoul to live in Canada. So days before his departure,...
- 5/24/2010
- by Fiona
- Filmofilia
Mirovision
NEW YORK -- Woman on the Beach, a subtle drama by Korean auteur Hong Sang-soo, approaches many of his favorite intellectual concerns: The fragile nature of human relationships is carefully explored, and there's the usual nod to the notion that cinema imposes a structure on whatever it observes. But the ideas in Beach are less intriguing than in such previous films as Turning Gate and A Tale of Cinema.
Clocking in at a slow 127 minutes, the film lacks Hong's usual insight and narrative innovation. It occasionally even feels self-indulgent. Domestic distribution prospects look weak.
The story, split into two roughly equal parts, revolves around the romantic peccadilloes of four people staying in a deserted beach resort. A film director (Kim Seung-woo) seduces a young girl, Moon-sook (Ko Hyun-joung), behind her boyfriend's back. The one-night stand is furtive and awkward for both. The young couple then returns to Seoul, leaving the director alone to work on his script.
Bored and suffering from writer's block, the director decides to use his fame to seduce another young girl (Song Sun-mi). He succeeds by conning her into doing an interview for his script research. Unfortunately, Moon-sook, having fallen in love with the aging lothario, returns to catch him in flagrante delicto with the new girl. Much soul searching ensues.
The beauty of the film lies in the acting. Hong draws naturalistic performances from his cast, as they express the gentle foibles and idiosyncrasies of their characters. Hong is adept at prompting slight variations in body language to tell the story. Camera movement is minimal, so as not to distract from their conversations. The cold light of the seafront reinforces the melancholia of the protagonists.
In spite of these accomplishments, Beach lacks substance. There's an attempt to make the point that our knowledge of people is wholly based on the small bits of them we can perceive. But that observation doesn't sit at the core of the story.
NEW YORK -- Woman on the Beach, a subtle drama by Korean auteur Hong Sang-soo, approaches many of his favorite intellectual concerns: The fragile nature of human relationships is carefully explored, and there's the usual nod to the notion that cinema imposes a structure on whatever it observes. But the ideas in Beach are less intriguing than in such previous films as Turning Gate and A Tale of Cinema.
Clocking in at a slow 127 minutes, the film lacks Hong's usual insight and narrative innovation. It occasionally even feels self-indulgent. Domestic distribution prospects look weak.
The story, split into two roughly equal parts, revolves around the romantic peccadilloes of four people staying in a deserted beach resort. A film director (Kim Seung-woo) seduces a young girl, Moon-sook (Ko Hyun-joung), behind her boyfriend's back. The one-night stand is furtive and awkward for both. The young couple then returns to Seoul, leaving the director alone to work on his script.
Bored and suffering from writer's block, the director decides to use his fame to seduce another young girl (Song Sun-mi). He succeeds by conning her into doing an interview for his script research. Unfortunately, Moon-sook, having fallen in love with the aging lothario, returns to catch him in flagrante delicto with the new girl. Much soul searching ensues.
The beauty of the film lies in the acting. Hong draws naturalistic performances from his cast, as they express the gentle foibles and idiosyncrasies of their characters. Hong is adept at prompting slight variations in body language to tell the story. Camera movement is minimal, so as not to distract from their conversations. The cold light of the seafront reinforces the melancholia of the protagonists.
In spite of these accomplishments, Beach lacks substance. There's an attempt to make the point that our knowledge of people is wholly based on the small bits of them we can perceive. But that observation doesn't sit at the core of the story.
- 10/10/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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