Delusions and Distorted Desires

Delving into the filmmakers’ early works, youthful arrogance and romantic ambivalence take centre stage. In The Collector, a smug young man feigns detachment while attempting to assert control over a free-spirited woman during a summer retreat. Woman is the Future of Man presents two old friends revisiting a shared romantic past, revealing their self-delusions and emotional immaturity. Both films are stark examinations of the fragile male ego and the consequences of treating love as a game, exposing the moral blindness of men who believe they know what or who they want.

Original Title: 여자는 남자의 미래다
Director: Hong Sang-soo
Runtime: 84 mins
Country: South Korea
Language: Korean with English Subtitles
Rating: R21

Synopsis

On a snowy winter day in Seoul, Munho, a young art professor, catches up with his friend Hunjoon, a broke filmmaker who has just returned from the United States. After a few drinks, spurred by nostalgia and ego, they decide to track down Sunhwa, a woman they were both in love with a few years earlier. This decision sets off a chain of awkward and emotionally charged encounters that lay bare their unresolved feelings, personal failings, and conflicting desires.

Hong’s early fifth feature sets up the cyclical patterns of his prototypical male protagonists at their most pathetic. With his trademark use of long takes and deadpan irony, Woman is the Future of Man captures the melancholic absurdity of his male characters who revisit the past, hoping it might yield a different result.

For more screenings of Twin Tales: Hong Sang-soo and Éric Rohmer, please click here.

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