Woman on the Beach (DVD)
APPROX. 128 MINS. - PROD. YEAR: 2006 - MPA RATING: NR
" A study of mannerisms and relationships that pauses for the occasional philosophic sidebar.
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"Pablo Picasso never got called an asshole.
Not like you."
Director Hong Sang-soo returns to familiar ground in "Woman on the Beach" (2006). Like"Woman is the Future of Man" (2004), the films is structured around a love triangle. Creatively-blocked director Kim Jung-rae (Kim Seung-woo) asks (orders) his assistant Won Chang-wook (Kim Tae-woo) to accompany him on a seaside vacation so that Kim can clear his mind and work on his screenplay. Won makes the fatal mistake of bringing along his sort-of girlfriend Kim Moon-sook (Ko Hyun-joung) who also happens to be sort-of a big fan of Director Kim. You can guess what happens next.
Poor Chang-wook never stands a chance. Chicks dig the long ball, and they dig artists too. You can´t compete with "artist" unless you´re an athlete, a millionaire, or maybe this guy. Moon-sook obviously has a plan from the beginning. She cruelly taunts her sort-of boyfriend (they kissed once) as she makes her play for the highly receptive Director Kim. But the film doesn´t quite go where you might expect. Just as tensions between the two men are about to reach full boil, Chang-wook simply disappears from the scene altogether. The poor schmuck isn´t even important enough to stay in the script once it´s clear he´s no longer in the running for Moon-sook´s heart, or at least her body. Maybe he can use the time to go to art school.
If Moon-sook thought she was trading up the ladder, however, she´s in for a surprise when it turns out the director is every bit as immature and insecure as his assistant. He also has a convenient excuse for every problem that arises: he´s an artist. He has to write his script, and bring his wonderful dreams to life and he cannot be bothered to play by the rules that everybody else does. And, damnit, women are begging for the chance to be with him because he´s a freaking artist for crying out loud! When Moon-sook doesn´t fit neatly into his plans, she also takes a temporary hiatus from the story and Kim tries to cast someone else to play her role in his life. He finds her in Choi Sun-hee (Song Sun-mi) who he insists looks exactly like Moon-sook even though she doesn´t.
Hong´s most obvious comparison is Eric Rohmer, though like any comparison between directors, the resemblance is a loose one. "Woman on the Beach" is a study of mannerisms and relationships that pauses for the occasional philosophic sidebar. In this case, it´s mostly bullshit that Director Kim spews (something about a string that holds everything together) but it´s still his effort to make sense of his place in the universe and, as a side benefit, a neat way to try to impress women. Come to think it, it´s probably the making sense of his place in the universe that´s the side benefit.
