Woman is the Future of Man

Hong Sangsoo is a film professor turned director. I have seen only 2 of his films, "Virgin stripped bare by her Bachelors" and this one; "WOMAN IS THE FUTURE OF MAN". The director is an artist concerned with alienation and the "battle of the sexes". Sangsoo definitely has a fondness for subtle symbolism and repetition in tales of unsympathetic relations and the mistake of always trying to recapture the past, not being able to let go.

This director is a minimalist and a very strict one at that. He avoids cinematic manipulations like close-ups. Most scenes in his movies are done in 1 take, wide shots and limits camera movement. He gives his performers a wide berth to fill a scene. I think he uses an observational perspective.

The tale begins when 2 old chums meet for a lazy afternoon, which will lead to a drunken weekend. Munho (Jitae Yu) is a married art teacher, while his friend, Hunjoon (Teawoo Kim) had just returned from his film studies from the U.S. the screenplay is about "slow reveal", blossoming occurrances and "woman..." starts with Munho making a point not to invite Hunjoon into his home. Munho offers Hunjoon to walk into the backyard to walk on fresh snow.
Two of the potent symbolisms are shown when Hunjoon takes a few steps on the snow and backtracks in them on purpose so that the path will seem like it had suddenly stopped. As for this scene; it is a piece of symbolism: 1)an abandoned path (stopped walking forward)means no set direction or I suppose from the title's standpoint "no future" 2)Hunjoon walking backwards in his steps means a desire to go back and relive the past.

As for the act that Munho didn't let his friend inside his home, Munho has harbored anger when Hunjoon gave his spouse an " friendly American" hug when they went to visit him in the States before. Munho is a man of resentment and insecurity.

This becomes the premise of the film. The 2 men-kids drink and eventually reminisce about a shared romance back in the college days, Sunhwa (Hyeona Seong, The Intimate, Time). They inadvertently decide to see her and in turn, their past failings resurface. For Hunjoon, he remembers Sunhwa as a fragile girl that he had mistreated. He took advantage of her when he supposedly tried to "cleanse" her (by having sex with her) after she was raped by an old school chum, then dumping her to attend film school in America. For Munho, he dated her while Hunjoon was in the states attending film school. He remembers her as an awkward sexual conquest. The ultimate irony is that the two men are unable to see their shortcomings when it comes to women, they express their frustrations in their drunken pleas for punishment, at the same time, they are pathetic and ignorant--they are doomed to commit their past mistakes.

VIDEO/AUDIO: ANAMORPHIC WIDESCREEN. The transfer is kept simple, not very striking. The PQ is not vibrant, somewhat soft and lacking in contrast. But is very clean, free of print damage. Korean Language 5.1 Dolby and 2.0 surround with English subs.
EXTRAS:
Liner notes by Michael Atkinson and Kyung Hyun Kim.
French and Korean Theatrical Trailers.
Introduction by Martin Scorsese (this is very nice).
Interviews with the three leads & Making of Featurette .
OVERALL:
WOMAN IS THE FUTURE OF MAN is a very rewarding drama. The dvd is not technically sound, but this film has a lot to offer fans of Korean "art" films.
RECOMMENDED!! (4 stars)

Don't really know what I was thinking when I checked this one out. The movie is basically about two middle aged losers talking about the girl that got away. The movie is harsh to watch because it's very monotone to say the least. There's very little done to distinguish the flash back scenes. It's really just laziness on the directors part. A special effect, sound queue or anything would have helped for you to realize it was the past. They look the same in the past as they do in the present day so it just makes the story more difficult to follow. Usually Korean films bring great story to a picture but this was just a let down. The male characters are so spineless and bland they aren't even believable. Most of the movie is just sitting down and drinking and talking about absolutely nothing. I've seen too many Korean and foreign films to even care about social differences it's just the norm for me now.

Although I didn't like the movie very much I still watched it to the end (took me several days). It just feels like a lazy movie that might have been something much better if the writers put more effort into it. This is actually for once a bad movie that lacks any charm. A true monotone movie that you will forget as soon as you watch it. The first movie I've watched that didn't have one single highlight. I never thought a movie could be so bland. The most interesting thing about this movie is the box cover where the actors LOOK NOTHING LIKE THEY DO IN THE MOVIE! They must have taken that photo on audition day or something or maybe they took it while they were on set of a different more interesting movie that wasn't this one.

Bottom line... this movie sucks.

1Star well deserved.

Another reviewer's comparison with Jules & Jim suggests so much more than is here: more charisma, more beauty, more humor, more pathos... being sorry I let the video box's reviews & description draw me in, I'm writing this in the hope of sparing others a similar several hours of misery (or maybe it just seems that long!). The direction and timing are indulgent. The narrative is under-written and ineffective. The sex scenes are disgusting enough to at least have the potential to slow overpopulation. The point-of-view, mostly male, is more simple than that of the most simple-minded male, unless this is how it is in Korea. There is way too much gratuitious depiction of women enduring humiliation, exploitation, and a horribly primitive hierarchy. BTW, the interviews with the actors (one of the DVD's "extras") revealed that some scenes were done w/ the actors actually drunk - an idea they seemed to feel was somehow exciting, revolutionary, perhaps even avant garde - er, no - or, more to the point, it didn't save this tripe, and may have been part of the problem. This director needs to take a course in Jim Jarmusch over and over until he gets the point of true minimalism - and, perhaps, a sense of humor.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 5 reviews  2.2 out of 5 stars