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Rating: 7 stars

Tags

Korean mubi seoul south korea friendship conversation movie theater gay themes cat long take

All movies seen on 05/17/2022

View on: IMDb | TMDb

The Woman Who Ran (2020)

Directed by Hong Sang-soo

Drama

Overview

While her husband is on a business trip, Gam-hee meets three of her friends on the outskirts of Seoul.

Length 77 minutes

Actors

Kim Min-hee | Seo Young-hwa | Song Seon-mi | Kim Sae-byuk | Kwon Hae-hyo | Lee Eun-mi | Kang Yi-seo | Shin Seok-ho | Ha Seong-guk | Jo So-yeon | Darcy Paquet

Viewing History (seen 1 time)

Viewing Notes

Another poignant drama from Hong Sang-soo… who would’ve thought?? Having seen a handful of his films they always have an element of strangeness like a deja vu or repeating scenarios. This film is no different but much more grounded in a realty that feels plausible. A woman, Kim Min-hee (a definite muse of Sang-soo), visits her friends and shares conversation with them. Each scenario is similar yet different.

There are three different encounters and each is presented with long takes of two people talking. It’s almost like a staring contest to see how long the take will go. And the scenes are punctuated with these zoom-in close-ups of each character. It’s unusual and feels like television program of a stage play. Also there is one odd element in each act. For example, the first act features a neighbor complaining about the women feeding “robber cats” aka strays or alley cats. It just goes on and on and becomes absurd. The featured cat in the frame is amazing.

Each act is interesting by itself but when tied together really makes for an introspective approach of these characters and how we relate to them and Kim Min-hee in particular since she is our central focus for engagement. What’s neat is that even tho it has Sang-soo’s eye and approach and stylings, this movie is different from the others I’ve seen. And it makes me want to watch more of his work to compare.

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