Watch Woman Is the Future of Man For Free

Let's be realistic.

Fresh and Exciting

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

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

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.

"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.

It's been three years since the release of Turning Gate and since then Hong has directed two more films. When I look at the Korean cinema, it's sometimes impossible to compare Hong to other directors, because his films are like one big diary of an experienced intellectual, full of infinite stories to share with the viewers. What makes his films even more special is that Hong likes to stick to a similar flow of storytelling and the overall style each time, even if the stories themselves are different from one another.This particular film deals with a reunion of two male friends who haven't seen each other in quite some time. First twenty minutes seem to be unaware of the film's direction, but that's not a problem at all with Hong's films. After some time of reminiscing, eating and drinking excessively, they decide to meet up with their old female acquaintance who one of the guys has not been in contact with since he moved to the States. He soon discovers that she took his abandonment very badly for the reasons he was very well aware of. Through those years apart the woman obviously underwent significant changes in her behavior, which become apparent when they both spend the night over at her place.Even though the story often touched on some dramatic moments, it was Hong's surprise choice of lightly uplifting classical music that often deflated the sentiment and heaviness of each character and tried to give room to some unintentional humor. The scenery is still all too familiar and pleasantly accommodative to the characters. The delivery from the actors is just as insightful and efficient as the story allows it to be.The length of the film stands at 88 minutes, making it Hong's shortest film to date and unfortunately the ending feels abrupt. Now the reason for that might be because the story and the actions chosen by some of the characters lack overall climax and feel somewhat nonlinear, but that's just how life is sometimes. The director still has an exceptional eye for capturing such situations, even if the finished product has to suffer consequences from an audience that isn't used to his style of storytelling or is expecting a certain closure. I got stranded right in the middle, greatly admiring Hong's roaming through hidden emotions and candid sex scenes, as well as his love for signifying details, but at the same time I felt slightly unmoved and in anticipation for a greater impact with his trademark symbolisms that made his previous films so memorable.