Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors (2000)

Relationship filled with pitfalls between a pleasant female video producer and a gallery owner as they become embroiled in their self-spun web of illusions. Bitter-sweet serenade to modern courtship.

Director:

Sang-soo Hong

Writer:

Sang-soo Hong

Stars:

Eun-ju Lee, Seong-kun Mun, Won-hee Cho

5 wins & 5 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Eun-ju Lee	...	Soo-jung
Seong-kun Mun	...	Young-soo
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Won-hee Cho
Myeong-gu Han
Jeong Ho-Bong
Lee Hwang-Ui	...	Soo-jung's Older Brother
Bo-seok Jeong	...	Jae-hoon
Yeong-dae Kim
Mi-hyeon Park
Cho Ryeon
Mi-jung Song
Seon Yu	...	(as Yu-Seon Wang)

Storyline

A young man arrives at a hotel for an assignation; she calls to say she's not coming. He is Jae-hoon, she is Soo-jung; they've met through Young-soo, an independent filmmaker. Soo-jung writes for Young-soo; Jae-hoon may finance his film project. From varying points of view in two long parallel flashbacks, we see what precedes the hotel date. Details differ, and each account includes events missing from the other. Characters are quiet and self-contained, then animated; victims apologize. Each character frequently asks, "Really?" What has really happened? Is one account more accurate? Is a kiss the most enjoyable and promising human contact? Connections are tenuous and fragile.

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Plot Keywords:

nipple | breast sucking | affair with female employee | first time | kissing in public | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Did You Know?

Trivia

The last Sang-soo Hong film to use a traditional script.

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Connections

References The Untouchables (1987)

User Reviews

Odd, compelling mix of formalism and humanity

Hong Sang-soo really is probably the greatest director almost no one has heard of, at least from Asia if not the whole world. That said, I'm not sure I like this one quite as much as his earlier "The Power of Kangwon Province", if only because it doesn't quite have the same sense of distinct urban anomie that I love. It might be an all-around more well-constructed film though, if borderline too strictly formalist. It's too bad these are the only two films of his available on DVD because otherwise I'd make watching all of them a priority. It's funny that the film has such a rigid sense of structuralism and yet is infused with such a real, intimate sense of humanism. The film is divided into two halves (each with eight chapters), showing roughly the same courtship between a man and a woman, first from what appears to be his perspective, and then from hers (although the specific point-of-view is never directly announced and it is possible they overlap somewhat). This sounds pretty gimmicky, and in a sense it skirts that line, but like I was saying it is presented in such a straight-forward, empathetic way that it barely seems cerebral or detached at all. It's really quite remarkable, i think, what a truly empathetic tone the film has. Although visually somewhat similar to the work of the great Tawainese director Hou Hsiao-hsien, the film has none of Hou's pronounced sense of detachment or aloofness. Instead it feels incredibly intimate and humane. Still, the rigid structural devise, if not quite gimmicky, does create a certain repetitiveness, since unlike "Rashomon" the two versions of events don't usually differ in very overt ways (although there are some differences). I wouldn't normally call the film slow (as minimalistic as the camera style is, it moves along fairly briskly), but the repetition does make it seem like it drags at times over the course of it's two hour length. Still, it's overall a pretty great film. Some of the most honest, heartfelt, no-frills relationship stuff I've ever seen in a film, actually. The last scene in particular is one of the nicest things I've seen in a while.

Details

Country:

South Korea

Language:

Korean

Release Date:

27 May 2000 (South Korea)

Also Known As:

Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors

Box Office

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$3,936

Company Credits

Production Co:

Mirashin Korea

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1