An interesting film that really dissects the relationships which exist between men and woman. This is actually my first Sang-soo Hong film, and he really does have a very unique voice. The film follows a director who convinces his friend to come to beach with him to help write his next screenplay. The friend brings his girlfriend whom the director is immediately drawn too. What ensues isnt much of a love triangle but more a study of the relationship which divulges between these two characters who are instantly attracted to one and other. The film has a lot of philosophical discussions between characters and does grow to be a bit tedious given the length of 128 minutes. Hong has some great compositions but I found his use of zoom to be a bit distracting. Strong, fascinating film but its pacing was a little too tedious for me to rate it any higher.

I can appreciate the attemp to dissect the various relationships among relative strangers, but it's long and slow and has some odd camera work to boot.

This is better than "Night and Day" IMHO...

One of the best Korean art house films I have seen. Storyline is simple yet Director Hong made sure it displays how complex relationships are between men and women. Astounding.

Enjoyed the overall flow of this one. I appreciated Hong's patience with the camera in general, allowing scenes to play out with limited cutting. The zooms seemed more distracting than helpful, though they often do effectively isolate certain characters from others. The arc of the female protagonist reminded me a little of Kate Dollenmeyer's character in Funny Ha Ha, not just in the story, but in Hong's portrayal of her as well. Very enjoyable.

some odd camera work that was sort of interesting, kind of silly and some occasionally awful dialogue.

LETTERBOX. Muy bien hecha y efectiva, pero diluida en su extensión y algo redundante, lo cual no sería tan problemático si el protagonista no fuera tan antipático (ni su desarrollo tan arrastrado). / Very well made and effective, but diluted in its extension and somewhat redundant, which would not be a problem if its protagonist weren't so unpleasant (and his development so dragged).

I enjoyed this work by Hong, one of his more accessible works. Again about man-woman relationships and this one is entertaining, with some philosophical sidebars on fixations, obsessions. It is quite watcheable and easy to understand, moreso than "woman is the future of man". Enjoy..

i liked the point of this movie, but was slightly irritated to have to sit through two hours of mostly unlikable people making poor choices to get there...still it was well made and different from most stuff....however i greatly prefer Hong's "The Power of Kangwon Province", or "Virgin Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors" to this.

I think I was supposed to like this movie. I may have been helped by seeing other films done by director Hong Sang-soo. But this movie never captured my attention. The characters seemed self-involved, too much for their own good. Copious amounts of alcohol are consumed and I wasn't sure why. Lots of insults were thrown around so wasn't sure if they liked each other. After it was all over, I was left wondering if writer's block is solved in such shallow and cruel ways as this movie seems to depict. Creation/creativity may have its struggles. But this movie asks its audience to stretch in ways I think were too far-fetched. It wasn't funny and it wasn't engaging enough for me.

Woman on the Beach mark my first entry into Hong sang-hoo?s portfolio of film. And to be honest, while i do not enjoy the film completely, but actually, this one surpasses my expectation. Knowing that Hong is such an ?acclaimed? Asian director, which is very often gotten mention in the same sentence with Tsai Ming-Liang, Hou Hsiao-Sien, etc then i already expecting a heavy, meditative, and quite boring film. But fortunately, the case is so much different. While there are some flaws here and there, and still featuring the same ?simplish? directional style, but This is, surprisingly, a light, funny, yet still offerings many great philosophical question for us to learn for. The main power of this film, for me is its clever and witty dialogue, and a great philosophy about the relationship of human being. There are two scenes in particular that, while i rated this, kinda thinking that i could rated this film higher. the first is just not far from the beginning, when the two main protagonist share an awkward moment outside a supermarket. and the second is near the end, when the director draws a very meaningful explanation about how to views a situation as a whole on a surface of paper. But then again, Hong use a very simple direction style, that, for a 2 hours more film, that kind of direction makes it more hard to follows this film without looking at the watch. If the first half of the film is a genius love triangle comedy, then the second half is when the boring word get used more often. But overall, i love how Hong differentiates from another director, and really looking forward for his other film !

Hong continues to dissect relationships between men and women, using his unique voice. His strength comes in balancing the arguments between the characters. Woman on the Beach is far more talkative than his earlier, Virgin Stripped Bare By Her Bachelor's. Here, the verbal philosophical musings of the main characters take center stage. Like his previous work, this is a thoughtful film. Thus, it can take a while to get going.

A Woman on the beach was the first South Korean film I saw. It was not conventional romance comedy, which to me was a relief. I really like how the story focus around two characters Director Kim Jung-rae (played by Seung-woo Kim) and Kim Mun-suk (played by Hyun-jung Go). Both Seung-woo and Hyun-jung Go were great actors and I believe in their performance. My favourite scene in the film was when Director Kim and Kim Mun-suk judge Choi Sun-hee choice to sleep with foreigners. I found it so funny how the two men reacted, in what could be perceive as racist views. One of my favourite scenes was where Director Kim draws a triangle on a napkin to graphically display the three images of his former wife's affair with a friend of his. During the progress of the film I started to have a grudge against Kim Mun-suk, as I found her to be an irritating and selfish woman. I was so relieve when Director Kim Jung-rae left Kim Mun-suk. Even tho this was a satisfying and not predictable ending, I did find the film to be a bit long and slow and it built up to an anti climax ending. When you follow a small bunch of characters like these two hours is too long, an hour and a half would have been sufficient. There is nothing I can really say negative about the film techniques used in Woman on the beach. In fact I was really impressed by some of the techniques and beautiful cinematography Director Hong Sang-soo used, like the use of two shot; and slow zoom which is not conventional. Some critics would say is an amateur’s technique, in this case it worked beautifully. The editing was simple, which allowed shots flow naturally. Overall excluding the long length of the film, A Woman on the beach is a beautiful film that raises the bar for romantic comedies.

Although not quite as great as some of his other works, this is still an elegant and intellectual film.

Wry, droll relationship comedy effectively skewers the modern Korean male, but like many of Hong Sang-Soo's films, it plays a little bit 'off' to me and, rather than building, gets stuck in repetitiion.

Encore une verification de la these de Rastier, selon laquelle, si mariage rime avec travail, libertinage rime avec art, souffle createur. Oserais-je dire apres ca que c'est "jouissif" ?

Il fait toujours un peu le même film et c'est bien.

This is the second movie I've seen from Sang-soo Hong (the other one was "Night and Day"). Both of them have given me lots of things to think about and really have been great experiences. I met him when came to the Paris Festival de Cinema, and I kind of think he would wish to be like the director in this film, which he is is not. ;)

a light story, not too bad, nothing really good. like the theme music. feel happy when listening to it plays on a blank screen.

Normally elements like a blocked-up screenwriter and hot-cold-hot relationship issues would raise some red flags, but hey, it's Korean. Look out Bujalski, you got some foreign competition.