Joong Rae (Kim Seung Woo) goes on a road trip to the west coast with his friend Chang Wook (Kim Tae Woo) and Chang Wook's girlfriend Moon Sook (Ko Hyun Jung). In the beautiful beach setting of Shinduri, Joong Rae and Moon Suk find themselves attracted to each other and spend a passionate night together. But where does life go the morning after?
One of the most eclectic directors in Korea, for the last ten years Hong Sang Soo has been redefining the idea of arthouse. Ever since his 1996 debut The Day a Pig Fell Into the Well, Hong has brilliantly explored the hypocrisy and everyday life of the planet's most mysterious creatures: men. Following 2005's introspective Tale of Cinema, Hong's latest film Woman on the Beach may be his most accessible to date. Starring Ko Hyun Jung (Spring Days), Kim Seung Woo (Hotelier), and Kim Tae Woo (Woman is the Future of Man), Woman on the Beach is more than a road movie or a romance drama, it's a Hong Sang Soo film.

  ****

Where Hong Sang-soo’s dramas differ from Eric Rohmer’s, other than all the ways that come with being Korean not French, is notably in the egotism mitigated by irony of having one the main characters in his movies often happen to be a handsome, hunky famous director. In this one it’s a “Director Kim,” as he’s respectfully addressed (Kim Joong-rae, played by Kim Seung-woo) who goes to the somewhat sterile environment of the semi-deserted Shinduri beach resort on Korea’s west coast with his production designer, Won Chang-wook (Kim Tae-woo) in hopes of ending a creative block and penning the treatment for his next film. Won brings along a girlfriend, composer Kim Moon-sook (Ko Hyun-joung, a former TV star) and competition gets blatantly going when Director Kim takes Moon-sook aside and frankly says he’s interested in her and asks her whether she’d prefer him over the designer, given a free choice.

The blatancy of Joong-rae’s authority is underlined by his being older, better-looking, physically bigger and stronger-looking, and possessed of a deeper voice. In comparison Won's a mild, slightly nerdy fellow. But despite that, Joong-rae’s not an out-and-out winner. He's comically chauvinistic in the way he damns the lady’s music with faint praise. And in the time that follows he proves to be neurotic and indecisive, stuffing his hands in his jeans and wiggling around on his legs with comic unease. Moon-sook’s dating men when living in Germany he admits is a turn-on for temporary dating, but the opposite for a long-term relationship. He has a serious hangup about mating with a woman who's experienced. Like a good Eric Rohmer character, he hesitates and they discuss. Moon-sook winds up saying that he's wonderful to her as a director, but in other ways just "a typical Korean man."

Excerpt from Chris Knipp at CineScene located HERE