Played by Han Hye-ji, The Woman, Sun-kyung, has a quiet and unassuming nature that calls no real attention to her, but is noticeable enough to easily fit into whatever space she’s in, yet somehow seems to give off an aura that makes those around her wonder just how she came to be there. Take for instance the film’s opening sequence.
Sun-kyung is at a job interview to be a receptionist at a small local factory, and while she sits with her upright posture, quietly answering the typical questions about her previous job experience, one of the male staff sits behind her on a sofa loudly eating his bowl of cup ramen. When he’s reprimanded to either eat his lunch quietly or leave. He chooses to stay. But but not eat quietly. As the boss continues, asking if she’ll stay at the company for a long while, she says she will, but keeps uneasily looking back at her future colleague loudly chewing his food, this time a rice ball.
Though Sun-kyung’s lack of reaction by way of impatience or annoyance at having her interview be treated so unseriously, may at first indicate she’s the type of person not easily bothered by such matters, it perhaps is the true first sign that this woman is nothing like she appears to be.
At her apartment, Sun-kyung does things that at first glance don’t seem to be anything worth noticing. She puts in the keycode for the door…and after a few initial failures, enters and walks slowly to the lightswitch which she doesn’t turn on with the first try, and hesitantly sits then lays down on the sofa staring at an off-putting picture hung on the wall. Perhaps it’s nothing, but perhaps it is something that this strange picture in a way has similarities to the now famous Pope Leo X (after Rapahel) piece by Colombian figurative artist Fernando Botero.
The mystery of the woman—I love that the title plays as a sort of double entendre reference to the film itself as body and Sun-kyung—begins with a strange encounter Sun-kyung has with a man, Young-hwan (Kim Hee-sang, Mash Ville) who she initiates contact with through an online market forum to purchase his second hand vacuum. At first everything seems normal but the tone quickly changes to one of foreboding when Young-hwan suddenly blurts out that his mother died after drinking cyanide-laced vitamin water. The situation becomes increasingly disturbing and worrisome as Sung-kyung realises that as a woman, her safety could be in jeopardy, but she’s suddenly rescued by a man who turns out to be Ui-jin, an old school friend who just happens to be passing and coincidentally lives close by.
The next day, Sun-kyung learns that Ui-jin was found dead in his home under suspicious circumstances. When questioned by the police, she informs them of the strange interaction she, Young-hwan, and Ui-jin had the previous day, and insinuates that perhaps he may have something to do with Ui-jin’s sudden demise.
As the police do their own investigations and draw their own conclusions about this case and another that occurs around the same time, Sun-kyung becomes convinced that she can figure out what the truth is. That she can tell the real from the fake news
The old adage “still waters run deep” perfectly applies to her, because as the film progresses Sun-kyun becomes a mystery for the audience to unravel, as she herself tries to solve the mystery of Ui-jin’s death and Sun-kyung’s supposed guilt.
In Mash Ville Hwang Wook proved that he has the ability to mix multiple genres, and music and cultural styles into his films in a cohesive way that makes sense to the narrative, but with enough roughness that the overall finished project doesn’t feel overly polished, and with The Woman he does the same but with a bit more slickness to the editing and cinematography befitting a film where a slight change in the camera angle can make a major difference in how a single look from a character can the entire context of what’s being said and done.
For The Woman, Hwang drew inspiration from the godfather of the physiological thriller and murder mysteries himself, Alfred Hitchcock and most notable his films Rear Window (1954), and Vertigo (1958), two films where nothing is ever what it seems, and the protagonists become the most unreliable narrators imaginable. Both films revolve around two male protagonists; one a former police detective with a severe case of vertigo, and the other a photojournalist bound to his bed due to injuries sustained in an accident, who try to solve two murder mysteries with multiple suspects, no real clear means of motive, and physical and mental barriers by way of their own biases and obsessive personality creating hindrances in their truth seeking endeavors as well as their relationships with those around them.
In making his protagonist a woman, Hwang Wook recognises that her gender creates a unique opportunity in showing how certain questions she asks, things she says, and the way she moves through communities within South Korean society gives a new interpretation of “the unreliable narrator”. Han Hye-ji does a terrific job of playing Sun-kyung as someone you want to trust because she’s a woman, is quiet, and likes to keep to herself. But she also turns these very same aspects of this woman into character traits that can be suspicious and at times eerie to watch. In the camera work by cinematographer Lee Sung-won, certain tilts of the camera and slight adjustments in the angle of the lighting create almost imperceptible illusions of Sun-kyung’s facial expressions taking on a menacing air. But was that really what happened or just the audience imagining things?
For Kim Hee-sang, working with Hwang Wook, The Woman is his second role playing an unhinged man on an emotional journey to either solace or completely losing whatever remains of his sanity. In both films, Kim’s portrayal is one that evokes sympathy laced with unease because we’re induced to be suspicious of him due to his troubling introduction. But unlike Mash Ville, as the story of The Woman progresses you have to wonder if perhaps our assumptions are wrong. Where we see a man sharing too much information about the violent death of his loved one, and not reacting in what’s considered a “normal” way, perhaps what’s being shown is a cry for help from a man in society that says grief is supposed to be kept hidden, dignified, and brief. A man who’s left alone to hold himself together and forced to project a facade that makes people who don’t even care about him as a person, comfortable in order to be accepted.
At the end of The Woman Hwang Wook gives no definite answers about anything. We perhaps know even less about Sun-kyung than we did in the beginning, and that’s a good thing because some mysteries aren’t meant to be solved…just yet. But what’s to be sure is that Hwang Wook and his creative team have created one of the most interesting psychological thrillers in recent years, and as performers Han Hye-ji and Kim Hee-sang gave layers to their characters, showing the complexities of human emotions where what we perceive to may not be the truth.
The Woman premiered in competition in the Cheval Noir program at Fantasia Fest.
In my interview with Hwang Wook and Lim Dong-min, they spoke about making such a drastic tonal change in the directing and narrative style from Mash Ville to The Woman, being inspired by Alfred Hitchcock, and how the modern ideology of “fake news” has seeped its way into into social media and people’s psyche, tainting the way they see the world.
Interpreting for the interview was conducted by Pyo Young-soo.
Carolyn Hinds
Freelance Film Critic, Journalist, Podcaster & YouTuber
African American Film Critics Association Member, Tomatometer-Approved Critic
Host & Producer Carolyn Talks…, and So Here’s What Happened! Podcast
Bylines at Authory.com/CarolynHinds
Twitter & Instagram: @CarrieCnh12
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