Hong Sang-soo Shoots 7th Feature

Prominent Korean art-house auteur, Hong Sang-soo began shooting his seventh feature film "Woman on the Beach" this month. The director is widely appreciated internationally with retrospectives of his work held in France, throughout the US, and most recently in Toronto. His feature "Woman is the Future of Man" and "Tale of Cinema" were shown in competition at the Cannes International Film Festival in 2004 and in 2005 respectively.

The new film will star Go Hyun-jung, Kim Seung-woo, Song Seon-mi, and Kim Tae-woo. This will be the film debut for actress Ko, a former 1989 Miss Korea runner up, who rose to fame in 1995 with her role in TV drama "Sandglass". After a nearly 10 year retirement, she made a comeback in 2005 with TV drama Spring Days.

Woman on the Beach centers on two men and women in their thirties who meet by chance on a beach and attempt in various ways to hook up. Actress Ko will play a jobless songwriter who studied music in Germany and falls in love too easily, even when the man is not her type. The role is quite the opposite of her TV image, and she has some concerns about doing nude scenes. She accepted the part after rejecting many other film offers because she was a fan of director Hong.

As director Hong is well-known for shooting without a finished screenplay, none of the actors read the script when they were asked to participate. The new feature is scheduled for September release.

Nigel D'Sa (KOFIC)

Advertisement