Hong Sang-soo's career-long
preoccupation with artists pining for women they can't have—while
mistreating those they can—continues in Woman On The Beach, another bleak, bone-dry comedy of
manners. Kim Seung-woo stars as a creatively blocked movie director who decides
to blow off work and head to an off-season seaside resort with his production
assistant and the PA's girlfriend, Ko Hyun-joung. The first half of the film is
about their awkward impromptu vacation, as Kim subtly bullies his employee and
cozies up to Ko, who has a crush on him—or at least the idea of him, based on his movies. In the
second half, after Kim abruptly abandons Ko, he returns to the resort and
becomes infatuated with another young woman, Song Sun-mi. Bit by bit, Kim tries
to recreate with Song the circumstances of his whirlwind romance with Ko. And
then Ko shows up unexpectedly.
Woman On The Beach is assured, artful, and easily
Hong's most accessible film, if only because it isn't as turtle-paced or
obscure as some of his earlier work. (Not to knock the likes of Turning Gate, Woman Is The Future Of Man, and Tale Of Cinema, all of which are superb in spite
of their slowness.) Woman On The Beach serves as an anti-love story, illustrating the
virtual impossibility of anyone finding the right man or woman to settle down
with, because there are too many viable choices. The film is full of imagery
that reflects the idea of replacement and abandonment, and Hong's main
stylistic trick is to zoom in or out suddenly, revealing or concealing a third
person, ever-hovering on the periphery of a couple.
There's a lot of triangulation in Woman
On The Beach,
including a long speech in which Kim sketches shapes for Ko and tries to
explain how human relationships are the sum of their good parts, even though
the resulting geometric figure is too complicated for us to fully appreciate.
Kim—and Hong, for that matter—is also talking about the act of
creation, which requires moments of divine inspiration coupled with long
stretches of acting like a jerk in order to get into the proper frame of mind. 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. Even in the final scene, Ko gets
her stuck car moving again with the help of two men. That's right, two—because there's always
another choice.