Woman Is the Future of Man (2004) User Reviews

Artistic Exploration of Sexuality

[jmverville · 7/10 · 26 February 2005]

Sang-soo Hong has done it again: he has made another controversial film that deals with the in-depth investigation of human sexuality, this time focusing solely on it from the perspective of two old friends meeting up again, one a successful college professor and the other a struggling film-maker.

From beginning to end, Hong lures you into the film by showing provocative sexual scenes and events, and really laying before us just how chaotic and disturbing sex can be, as well as how fulfilling it is. In between comical exchanges between the main characters, there lies a great deal of tragedy. Like many Korean films, it bended genres.

The acting was always as realistic as Hong aimed for in previous films like Power of Kangwon Province, and the story just as equally real -- focusing on very real dialog and very real occurrences. One can feel a close relationship to every character in the movie from start to finish. The mood is very real, and the soundtrack that accompanies it was very appropriate.

A uniquely artistic film that encourages the viewer to connect the dots, and a very real 'slice-of-life' film, I would recommend this to anybody who enjoys artistic film in general, or who has an interest in tackling some major issues about sexuality. It was another well-done piece by Hong, and I look forward to seeing more work by him in the future.

Quietly Engaging, An Authentic, Heartfelt Look at Matters of the Heart

[gonzagaext · 7/10 · 5 September 2006]

It's been a while since I watched the amusingly titled "Woman is the Future of Man" at the Quad. More than a year and 2 Hong Sang-Soo films later it remains among my favorite films.

While it's always refreshing and welcome to see films depart from the pyrotechnics of the Hollywood school of film-making, some films' subtlety and quietness are rather oppressive (Tsai Ming-Liang immediately comes to mind). I think I have a longer attention span than the average film-goer, however, I have to admit that I can't sit through all kinds of slow films. Some are worth the challenge, others end up embodying the stereotype of the inaccessible art film. Hong's film would've looked like art house snobbery in action if not for the fact that it's made in a very straightforward manner focusing mainly on the most basic of emotions (and the complicated situations emanating from them). The style of film-making is so cinema verite, so unobtrusive, it's a joy to go beyond being a member of the audience and feel like an actual passerby. The best, most memorable celluloid stories stay in your mind as films but "Woman" is a story so well-told it feels more like snippets from somebody's life told by a close friend.

Hong Sang-soo's "Woman is the Future of Man" is yet another great addition to the impressive national cinema of South Korea and one that pushes me to continue exploring more of this body of work. It's raw, naked jealousy, regret, love, lust, and longing. It's a bittersweet reminder for anyone who's ever experienced romantic love and its many variations and deviations. This is it how it happens and somehow Mr. Hong has captured it through the magic of cinema.

Evocative tale of love, lust and loss.

[mario10zeus · 7/10 · 15 July 2008]

I admit I was expecting more after Scorsese's introduction. Still ,the film captivates the viewers emotions. At times, it seems a character study of Hyeon-gon, the painter/college professor, or a neutral view of the object of attraction, Seon-hwa holds on both male leads. Initially, Mun-ho and Hyeon-gon, old friends meet for a drink. Mun-ho has just returned from film school in the United States. Both decide to visit their shared love interest, Seon-hwa. The movie is intercut with flashbacks and Hyeon-gon's interactions with his students. Mun-ho and Seon-hwa were together until he left for film school. Later she has an affair with Hyeon-gon. Seon-hwa is the unconditional ever-loving person, Mun-ho is the man with deep love but not very sure of himself, while Hyeon-gon is the man who's love is cheap but somehow appreciated. This view of the film might remind some men of the dictum, "nice guys finish last". Mun-ho and Seon-hwa are together. She is raped under odd circumstances by an earlier flame. The film doesn't explain why she decided to go to a motel with him, even when he seemed violent and over-assertive. I'm not sure if this is common in Korean culture or if female obedience is encouraged, or if Seon-hwa is simply weak-willed. Later Mun-ho bathes and cleanses her of impurity, followed by sexual intercourse and the professing of his true love for her. After he leaves, she starts an affair with Hyeon-gon. While he seems attracted to her, he comes off as a selfish character who only thinks of his own needs. In the present, while he is married, he claims to have no love for his wife. He also engages in an affair with one of his students. Oddly enough, Seon-hwa holds no ill will towards him, reserving her anger for Mun-ho. At their reunion, Mun-ho reveals his guilt over abandoning Seon-hwa, while she berates him for the pain he caused her. All characters feel a sense of loss for what they once had. This is comparable to having coffee with a woman whom you deeply loved several years back but for whom you don't feel anything anymore.

My first but not last Hong Sangsoo film

[adrean-819-339098 · 7/10 · 15 November 2012]

It has been a couple of years that I heard the name Hong Sangsoo and of his reputation. I'm a fan of Eric Rohmer and to have somebody follow in his tradition with glowing reviews immediately compelled me to seek out his films. His films aren't the easiest to come by so I immediately grabbed this film when I saw it.

I was not the slightest bit disappointed.

There was certainly an ethereal quality to this film and an indefinable stamp of a director unto himself. The decors are simple and not manipulated but at the same time there is a depth and simplicity in each shot. There is such a control of what we the viewer can see and what is not shown.

The relationships are complex and real. The tension is palpable in several scenes. My heart really went out to the characters during the course of the film. I even had a change of heart. I didn't feel manipulated by the nature of the characters but I felt free to choose. A second viewing might be rewarding to see another perspective.

In contrast to others I found the soundtrack unique and appropriate. I also appreciate that, like Rohmer, there is humor throughout the film.

This film has revitalised my opinion on Korean cinema which I had a pretty dire view on before (I lived there a few years ago). I also have a new director forefront in my mind whom I must discover more of.

I could have watched all night

[memfree · 7/10 · 18 April 2005]

This was a thoroughly engrossing film. Superb acting, believable characters, and a story that holds your interest. That said, you could dismiss the story as just another slice-of-life piece because it does boil down to a simple tale of two old friends getting together for a visit. Still, we care about what happens to everyone involved.

For this viewer, the major failing is that I wanted to see more of everyone's stories. I felt the film finished one story at exactly the right moment with the final scene, but I wanted to hear more about the other stories. I wouldn't have minded more of the well-ended tale, either, but I could accept that any more would require another full movie.

thought-provoking

[starla51792 · 6/10 · 21 January 2008]

Munho and Hyeon-gon are two friends who meet up years later. They go out to lunch and begin to reminisce. One is now a filmmaker and the other an art teacher, both share Seon-hwa in common. The story unfolds that Munho and Seon-hwa dated and Munhoo left her to study in America. While she waited, she began an affair with his friend Hyeon-gon. All these years later Munho has no idea and the two decide to go visit Seon-hwa together. Hyeon-gon expresses in the beginning that he is married and no longer sees his wife as a woman or wife anymore and instead as "human" therefore she can do as she likes. When the two meet up with Seon-hwa, Munho is obviously upset over the past and wants to rectify things with her, however, the triangle persists and then unravels into yet another entangle that made me a tad puzzled. What exactly this film meant and a tie in with the title, I'm not sure if I fully grasped. I liked many elements about the film, but felt that the lack of close ups was strange and distant, and the story felt almost open-ended. I would like to know more about it but I'd say it was still interesting.

A slice of life

[Atavisten · 5/10 · 9 May 2005]

I enjoy these outtakes of real life films very much, if they are done right it feels like you can watch and watch for hours on end without feeling bored, another Korean example of this type of film is 'Nakta dul' which I think is better.

The actors are good and fit their respective roles well and its a realistic portrait of these people. That is for the situations they are in as well. The role sex has here makes me a bit embarrassed to be a male, the guilty mood is created by sexual desire and the lenghts they take to fulfill it. "We don't have real culture, people are only thinking of sex" or something along the similar lines was uttered in the café, somehow it sums it up.

Its an OK movie that I give a 5 of 10.

A Curious Experiment In Character Study

[jzappa · 8/10 · 20 October 2008]

A story has a beginning, a middle, and an end: This comes from Aristotle, and it splendidly describes a great many stories from the European narrative tradition, but it doesn't describe all stories. It is very Western to stress the end, on where the story goes, the destination. It means progression or change in time, but when removing yourself to observe the composition of a story, what if interims and languid moments between characters, or one character, equipped it with its expression?

There are two basic kinds of good movies. One is a movie where you leave saying, "I don't under, wait, yeah, of course, now I understand! What a masterpiece! Let's go find a party," and by the time you wake up the next day, it is possible you are no longer thinking of it at all. Then, there is a movie that is upsetting or intricate or unusual, and you leave unsure, but you think about it the next day, or off and on for a week, or off and on forever. That is because that kind of film, which for instance aside from this film includes Nil By Mouth, No Country For Old Men, Brick, or any given John Cassavetes movie, is not clean or neat. There is something about it that comes purely from the heart, and so, it goes to the heart.

The story orbits droopily roundabouts two old pals, a university art teacher played by Yu Ji- Tae, who was the delightfully unusual villain in Oldboy, and Kim Tae-Boo playing a graduate from an American film school who has recently returned to his home country. As they have dinner in a restaurant, and Hong Sang-soo directs these two actors so that the painful awkwardness between them is realistically implacable, Tae-Boo talks Ji-Tae into fixing up a reunion between them and his old girlfriend, Seong Hyeon-ah. But, unbeknownst to Tae-Boo, Ji-Tae had grown to be drawn into a relationship with her following Tae-Boo's career-driven exodus to the US. Unlike the two men, she has no buried intention to compensate for or hold on to days gone by, not just for the reason that it's upsetting, but also because she is altogether here and now. The three shortly gather for a night of drinking, although ultimately, the film doesn't show any emotional culmination or yet still arrive at an apparent close. But that's your call when you see it.

The film was screened alongside another South Korean film, a magnificent one, Oldboy, at Cannes, marking the first time that two films from the country were in the competition simultaneously. Unlike Oldboy, Woman Is the Future of Man did not win any of the awards and reportedly met with an indifferent reception, which to me is strange. I don't find it to be a discouraging element to making the decision to see a movie, because that is a reaction that is highly unusual. It is not a sign that this is a bad film or that it's a profoundly brilliant film, because really it's neither. What it means to me is that it's from the mind of a filmmaker who is either ahead of the pack, or has gone on an entirely different path than the pack from the very beginning.

Perhaps it's the feeling of maudlin defeat that filters through this curious experiment in which reminiscence, longing and crude egotism clank versus each other with tenderness. Sang-soo has an unobtrusive, fragile technique and averts from theatrical accompaniments or dignified monologues. In fact the characters are quite ineloquent. There is a number of scenes of ungainly sex, perhaps because of a forlorn lack of communication. Really, whether Sang-soo intended the outcome to be this way, every viewer will have a different reaction. To me, though I was not blown away by the movie, I still had a lot of reaction to it, ultimately that Sang-soo's elegantly broken storytelling reflects that our reminiscences can bring not much solace.

Unique

[PanTonowicZ · 7/10 · 26 October 2011]

Sang-soo Hong has very unique way of story telling. Which can sometimes be confusing for audience unfamiliar with retrospections mixed with present storyline without any hints. Feels really diary like though require constant attention to avoid mentioned confusion. I think thats why my friend who is unfamiliar with non-Hollywood narration completely did not like it. He also accused me of wasting his time. I however share Scorsese's point of view who said that Hongs films unpeel like an orange .

Films about 2 friends that meet over the beer after they haven't seen each other for few years. What we're witnessing is memories, resentment and so on coming back as the story follows. After drinking they decide to catch up with their lad friend. Scenes are built very. The story has rather dramatic character but there are subtle comical moments like the one in the bar with waitress. Ending is rather disappointing and abrupt. But it convey the fact that some things ends just very sudden and sometimes you don't even know when did it happen and why.

In a sense point of this film is to convey some old truth. In the eyes of women all men are pigs and thats often truth. Although as a men i cant accept it. Oh and the film feels like it lacks some kind of twist or something really dramatic.

Men Are Sex-Obsessed Schmucks - Korean Version

[noralee · 5/10 · 13 March 2006]

"Woman Is the Future of Man (Yeojaneun namjaui miraeda)" feels like a cheerless Korean spin on "Jules et Jim" crossed with the chauvinism of "Carnal Knowledge".

From the discussion in the ladies room after wards, people in the audience weren't falling asleep trying to follow the flash backs vs. dreams vs. fantasies vs. flash forwards vs. the narrative of an obsessive threesome of old friends as much as frustration with the women characters. Either the females were fulfilling every racist stereotype Americans have of "Oriental" women, as seductive passive doormats, or the film is one long drunken male fantasy. The women only got to even show emotions a handful of times.

Occasionally the two guy friends weepily confess, through their nonstop talking and drinking reunion, their faults with mea culpas and various self-flagellations about wanting sex "too much", and even admitting that they've mistreated the women they stalk --but that doesn't stop their boorish, insensitive --and worse-- behavior.

It is also possible that a lot of the Korean cultural reference points were lost in the subtitle translations. There seems, for example, to be a familiar form of address in Korean as there is in many non-English languages that was clumsily handled in the translation when women despair of being addressed that way by their lovers.

Whatever theme writer/director Sang-soo Hong intended to portray about the role of Eros amidst a non-purifying snowy night in the city, all that comes across is that men are schmucks and they deserve what they get.

A Classic tale in the Noir Style

[newjcubed · 8/10 · 22 January 2006]

A classic film that should be seen by everyone. Okay I'm a little biased since I was an extra in the film. You can see my glorious side profile and backside walk behind the two main actors during the airport scene. Director Hong Sang Soo is a genius and this movie is as good if not better than the Turning gate and Oh Soyoung. The ending scene was perfect if you were one of the few that paid attention to the movie. I was amazed by Korean audiences that after seeing the final scene sighed a collective "Huh?" It was of course a failure in Korea because despite some good films coming from that country most Koreans enjoy formulaic sappy love comedies. Let's hope that Hong Sang Soo doesn't take this commercial failure to heart. He is a great director and a true genius.

Drek

[stevergy2000 · 3/10 · 10 November 2016]

This is my third Sang Soo Hong flick, and quite probably my last. After A Virgin Stripped Bare..., A Woman on the Beach and now Woman Future, I was amazed by how they are all THE SAME STORY! A movie director (come on, Hong - there are other types of people in the world) has sex with girl(s)(come on, Hong - there are other types of things people do with other people in the world),gets drunk and abusive, making a scene in a restaurant (come on, Hong - there are ways in which people's characters and frustrations can be revealed without going over-the-emotional-top each time)and then,.... Nothing! No end of resolution or point to the film. And unlike other reviewers who found this (and I paraphrase) 'a deft, fragile touch at portraying the inconclusiveness of much of real life', I found it an inevitable corollary of having nothing real to say except what you navel-gazed and fantasized about in your life as a movie director/chaser of women/drunk. In Woman Future, the main character (here, an art professor) meets a new woman with 12 minutes to go in the film, has a form of sex and then says goodbye as she catches a cab. What? No conclusion was reached either here or with respect to his relations with his film director friend or their mutual girlfriend. Even his sex scenes have no development. The couple walk down the hall. Cut. The couple are now naked in bed, thrusting. (come on, Hong - there is such a thing as seduction, and the art of romance). The real clincher for me about the similarity of these 'films' was clicking the 'People who liked this also liked...' section on the IMDb page for this film. There, I found twelve more titles of Hong films, with a capsule plot sketch of each. And they're all the same! Some artist (usually a movie director)has a friend. Their stories get entwined with those of a woman. Again, and again, and again. How does this guy get the $ to do this again and again and again? 3/10

Is it?

[Jithindurden · 8/10 · 13 July 2018]

My first Hong was ..Turning Gate which was ok for me but never understood the hype of it and when I heard most of his films are like that I wasn't so keen to watch his rest. But here I understand his style better, basically, it's the same theme as the former where people get confused and misunderstood in love and friendship and when they turn into lust for a faster relief it's still unfulfilling and men and women never understand each other. But I still think this could have been a masterpiece with better craft.