Woman on the Beach (Hong Sang-soo, 2006)
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On 35mm at the Kabuki with Lucía, Ben, and Roberto on 24 June 2008 at 21:45.
Even though I haven’t seen enough of Rohmer’s films to make the assertion myself, the comparison between this and Rohmer’s works seems apt. A lot of talking, walking around, emotional manipulation, emotional transformation, and yet very little actually happens, and the entire world is pretty much left on the sidelines so we can better contemplate the relationships. I can’t say that I’m a huge fan of this sort of film, and this one seemed a bit overlong, and yet I could see myself watching this film again and even looking forward to the next Hong Sang-soo film I see. Because in its own way, the film is quite nicely done. We see nice parallels between the beginning of the film where the Director Kim puts his friend’s girl on a pedestal (one that she is quite willing to be on) and at the center of a love triangle (if the three participants in a love triangle are its corners, how can one of the participants be at its center?), and the second half of the film where Director Kim finds himself at the center of a love triangle, ultimately undone by the entangling threads of his own machinations and manipulations which are amplified by his refusal to really let anyone into his own heart or admit his own mistakes.
Interesting how Tae-woo Kim seems to be jettisoned from the film and all but forgotten by the characters once he effectively emasculates himself out of his own jealousy and spitefulness (presumably the fact that he’s trying—and failing—to cheat on his wife plays a part in this). Also interesting is Choi Sun-hee’s obsession with Mun-suk as she tries to unravel what it is about Mun-suk that fascinates Director Kim and what it is about herself that reminds Director Kim of Mun-suk.
There were some odd parts of the film—such as the abrupt appearance of the sushi waiter as the dangerous motorcyclist on the beach—that felt as though they would have been better off left on the cutting room floor.
I’m not sure that the film felt believable in any way, or that I was really able to fully enter into the characters the way I wanted to, but I certainly felt that Hong Sang-soo did a great job of exploring certain elemental characteristics of the way people interact, fool each other, and fool themselves.
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