"Woman on the Beach" is a distinct Hong Sang-soo movie, which both fans of the director and intelligent art-house cinema will definitely enjoy.

| Feb 21, 2021

Woman on the Beach is like a scoop of vanilla ice cream, it's not going to wow anybody, but it's universally tolerable on a simplistic level.

| Jul 22, 2020

Perhaps enhanced by today's need for more person-to-person interaction, [director Sang-soo] Hong's stylistic approach strikes me as perfect for these trying times.

| Jun 24, 2020

It internalizes all the structural games that ... will come to so typify his work. A high point in his career ... melding satire and sincerity, emotion and farce.

| Jun 17, 2020

Hong Sang-soo's "Woman on the Beach" is his most complicated film, yet it seems his most accessible.

| Nov 16, 2017

None of it is very compelling, thanks in large part to Hong's painfully perfunctory camera style.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Sep 23, 2013

Hong has a deceptively simple director's touch, an organic breeziness that makes things feel spontaneous and improvised.

| Jun 17, 2013

Addresses in a serious/comical undertone something dearly personal and subtle the director has to say that's worth paying attention to.

| Original Score: A | Feb 3, 2013

A study of mannerisms and relationships that pauses for the occasional philosophic sidebar.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Jul 29, 2009

Woman on the Beach, perhaps [director Hong's] most accessible film (and often a funny one, too), is a good introduction, even if it is not a masterpiece. Here's hoping more of his films see the light of an American day.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 20, 2008

Hong [Sang-soo] moves slowly but deftly through scenes rich with social games and veiled confessions and allows his characters to emerge sadder but wiser.

| Original Score: A | Jun 1, 2008

A richly satisfying film that compassionately probes the human heart while preserving its elusive mysteries.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | May 30, 2008

Reminiscent of Godard's Contempt, but writer-director Hong Sang-soo--South Korea's foremost chronicler of romantic maneuvering--is more aptly compared to Eric Rohmer for his subtle comedy.

| Apr 25, 2008

You won't need a degree in Korean cinema to anticipate that complications will arise.

| Apr 13, 2008

The scenery's great and the performances adequate, but wake me when it's over.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jan 11, 2008

An elegant serving of comic Seoul food from director Hong Sang-soo.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jan 10, 2008

A marvelously acted and memorably atmospheric picture.

| Jan 10, 2008

Woman On The Beach is a stripped-down, witty explication of how we all get stymied by the impulses and options inherent in the simple act of living.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Jan 10, 2008

Newcomers intoxicated by Hong's amorous pileups and power plays will hopefully treat the movie as the gateway to an incredible back catalog.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/6 | Jan 10, 2008

Korean director Hong Sang-soo's Woman on the Beach offers flavors of quarterlife angst and romantic insecurity for which American audiences clearly have an insatiable appetite.

| Jan 9, 2008