Review of Woman on the Beach (2006) by Luke B — 07 Sep 2009

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.