''Woman on the Beach'' is the seventh feature film by

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

n director

Hong Sang-soo Hong Sang-soo (홍상수, born 25 October 1960) is a South Korean film director and screenwriter. Early life Hong's parents owned the film production company Cinetel Soul. Hong took the entrance exam and entered the theater department at Chun ...

, and was released in 2006.

Plot

Film director and screenwriter Kim Jung-rae asks his friend Won Chang-wook to drive with him from their homes in Seoul to the resort town of Shinduri, on the western coast of South Korea. Chang-wook initially resists, but accepts the request on the condition that he can bring Kim Mun-suk, a composer and aspiring singer whom he describes as being his girlfriend. Jung-rae is writing a treatment for a film titled "About Miracles," concerning the mysterious connections that secure everyday life—themes that play a major role in the work of Hong Sang-Soo. During the journey, Mun-suk quickly makes clear that she does not consider herself Chang-wook's girlfriend, and she finds herself and Jung-rae increasing drawn together. As the three drive on, Mun-suk discusses her years living abroad in Germany and reveals that she has had a number of relationships with Europeans, a fact that greatly disturbs both Chang-wook and Jung-rae. Mun-suk is particularly disappointed in Jung-rae's reaction, claiming, "You're not like your films." Nevertheless, Mun-suk and Jung-rae later kiss on the beach and then sleep together in a low-rent hotel room. The next day, as the three drive back to Seoul, Jung-rae pulls back from his intimacy with Mun-suk. He returns to the beach alone two days later. Missing Mun-suk despite his actions, Jung-rae hits on two women, one of whom vaguely resembles Mun-suk, by introducing himself as a film director and asking to interview them for his screenplay. Jung-rae proceeds to seduce Choi Sun-hee in much the same fashion as he had Mun-suk just a few days prior. While sleeping with one of the women, Sun-hee, in the same beachside motel where he'd been with Mun-suk, Jung-rae is surprised to find that Mun-suk has returned to Shinduri, found his room, and started banging on the door loudly and very late at night. Jung-rae sneaks Sun-hee out of his room through a separate exit. The next morning as Mun-suk sleeps at the foot of his door with a terrible hangover. Jung-rae attempts to reconcile with Mun-suk and lies about his night with Sun-hee, although his lie is increasingly transparent to all concerned. Having alienated Mun-suk and left Sun-hee without a goodbye, Jung-rae returns to Seoul with a creative breakthrough on his screenplay.

Cast

Kim Seung-woo Kim Seung-woo (c. February 24, 1969) is a South Korean actor who participated in various films, television series and variety shows through out 1990 until 2022. He also works in different media platforms such as playing a talk show host role. ...

... Director Kim Jung-rae *

Go Hyun-jung Go Hyun-jung (; born March 2, 1971) is a South Korean actress. She debuted in the entertainment industry as a Miss Korea runner-up in 1989 and went on to star in '' Sandglass ''(1995), one of the highest-rated and critically acclaimed dramas in ...

... Kim Mun-suk *

Song Seon-mi A song is a musical composition intended to be performed by the human voice. This is often done at distinct and fixed pitches (melodies) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs contain various forms, such as those including the repetit ...

... Choi Sun-hee * Kim Tae-woo ... Won Chang-wook *

Moon Sung-keun Moon Sung-keun (born May 28, 1953) is a South Korean actor and politician. He has won three Blue Dragon Film Awards, two Baeksang Arts Awards, and two Chunsa Film Art Awards for Best Actor. Career Moon was born in Tokyo, Japan. His father was ...

... (voice) *

Jung Chan Jung Chan (born February 23, 1971) is a South Korean actor. Filmography Film * ''The Young Man'' (1994) * ''Extras'' (1998) * '' Over the Rainbow'' (2002) * ''Road Movie'' (2002) * '' Invisible Light'' (2003) * ''Spring Breeze'' (2003) * ' ...

... Guy driving Mun-suk home *

Lee Ki-woo Lee Ki-woo (born October 23, 1981) is a South Korean actor. He is best known for his roles in '' The Classic'' (2003), '' Tale of Cinema'' (2005), ''A Love to Kill'' (2005), ''Flower Boy Ramyun Shop'' (2011), '' Rain or Shine'' (2017–2018), an ...

... Beach resort caretaker * Oh Tae-kyung ... Waiter at empty sushi restaurant * Choi Ban-ya ... Sun-hee's friend

Release

''Woman on the Beach'' was released in South Korea on August 31, 2006, and received a total of 225,388 admissions nationwide.

Reception

''Woman on the Beach'' has an 87% approval rating on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, and a 72/100

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

Awards and nominations

2006 Busan Film Critics Awards"The Woman on The Beach - Awards"
''Cinemasie''. Retrieved 2020-10-05. * Best Supporting Actor - Kim Tae-woo * Best New Actress -

2006 Korean Film Awards * Nomination - Best Actress -

* Nomination - Best Director -

* Nomination - Best Cinematography - Kim Hyung-koo * Nomination - Best New Actress -

2006

Director's Cut Awards The Director's Cut Awards () is an annual awards ceremony for excellence in film in South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sha ...

* Best Director -

2007

Asian Film Awards Asian may refer to: * Items from or related to the continent of Asia: ** Asian people, people in or descending from Asia ** Asian culture, the culture of the people from Asia ** Asian cuisine, food based on the style of food of the people from Asi ...

* Nomination -

Best Director Best Director is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organizations, festivals, and people's awards. It may refer to: Film awards * AACTA Award for Best Direction * Academy Award for Best Director * BA ...

* Nomination - Best Screenplay -

* Nomination - Best Music - Jeong Yong-jin 2007

Baeksang Arts Awards The Baeksang Arts Awards (), also known as the Paeksang Arts Awards, are awards for excellence in film, television and theatre in South Korea. The awards were first introduced in 1965 by Chang Key-young, the founder of the Hankook Ilbo newspap ...

* Nomination - Best New Actress -

2007

Grand Bell Awards The Grand Bell Awards (), also known as the Daejong Film Awards, is an awards ceremony presented annually by The Motion Pictures Association of Korea for excellence in film in South Korea. The Grand Bell Awards retains prestige as the oldest co ...

* Nomination - Best New Actress -

References

External links

Woman on the Beach
on Filmbom.com * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Woman On The Beach 2006 films 2006 romantic comedy films South Korean romantic comedy films South Korean independent films Films directed by Hong Sang-soo 2000s Korean-language films 2006 independent films 2000s South Korean films