Woman Is the Future of Man

REVIEW
Acclaimed Korean auteur Hong Sang-soo, director of Woman Is the Future of Man (taken from a Louis Aragon poem, the film’s enigmatic moniker is the year’s best film title), has specialized in observational minimalist dissections of the relationships between men and women – Hong’s films often have the feel of a more disillusioned Korean counterpart to the cinema of Eric Rohmer. Hong’s previous film Turning Gate so impressed famed French producer Marin Karmitz (a producer for Kieslowski, Haneke, Chabrol, Kiarostami, et al) that Karmitz offered to fund Hong’s subsequent project, making Woman the first of the director’s films to receive European subsidization. Rather than attempt to expand his canvas, Hong has opted to make an even more meticulously crafted portrait of male-female relationship minutiae. Taking place entirely within the span of just over a single day, the film focuses on the friendship between Mun-ho, a university arts professor, and Heon-jun, a filmmaker who has returned to Seoul after studying in America. Reminiscing about old times, the two men decide to pay a visit to a woman they both dated years ago, Seon-hwa, an artist who now operates a nearby bar. Seon-hwa isn’t exactly overjoyed to see her two former lovers, but the three spend the evening in her apartment anyway, discussing their pasts and their ambivalence about the future. Woman is a subtle, modest film, but a rewardingly insightful one.