Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors
Director: Hong Sang-Soo
Year Released: 2000
Rating: 2.0
Two rather unlikeable, desperate men - an art gallery owner and a filmmaker wannabe - both pursue a virginal TV writer (this setup sounds a lot like his 2004 picture Woman Is the Future of Man); the film is divided into two very similar parts, the first from the perspective of the men, the second from the girl's point-of-view. The problem is that if, for example, you weren't receptive to the anemic storytelling of the film the first time through - and I was not - then watching the same thing again with a slightly different slant (though nothing extraordinary) does little to add clarity or enhance the earlier section or 'rethink' the threesome in any major way. And I believe we can all say from experience that women and men hear and interpret things much, much differently - a better, crisper picture might have played around with the masculine/feminine interpretation of seemingly innocuous events (and hopefully had a better sense of humor).
