The Upcoming
  • Culture
    • Art
    • Cinema & Tv
      • Movie reviews
      • Film festivals
      • Shows
    • Food & Drinks
      • News & Features
      • Restaurant & bar reviews
      • Interviews & Recipes
    • Literature
    • Music
      • Live music
    • Theatre
  • Fashion & Lifestyle
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
  • What’s On
    • Art exhibitions
    • Theatre shows
  • Tickets
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Interviews
  • Competitions
  • Special events
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • RSS

Berlin Film Festival 2020

The Woman Who Ran (Domangchin yeoja)

Berlin Film Festival 2020: The Woman Who Ran (Domangchin yeoja) | Review
27 February 2020
Oliver Johnston
Avatar
Oliver Johnston
27 February 2020

Movie and show review

Oliver Johnston

The Woman Who Ran (Domangchin yeoja)

★★★★★

Special event

Taken at face value, the gentle, meandering exchanges between a woman and her various friends and neighbours as depicted in The Woman Who Ran don’t appear all that meaningful.They could even add a sense of mundanity to the onscreen “action”. But South Korean director Hong Sang-soo is a minimalist, and to form an emotional connection with his latest effort – or to form any sort of opinion at all about the film – will depend on whether an audience can (or wants to) detect  the concealed intentions behind it all.

Gam-hee (Kim Min-hee), a florist living on the outskirts of Seoul, is at a loose end while her husband is away. She visits two friends, and then goes to the cinema where she runs into another who happens to be working there. This might sound like a meagre synopsis, but it’s largely the extent of the describable plot. Having said that, it’s very much this third encounter that has the most tangible meaning, although in keeping with the established form of the piece (and arguably the entirety of Sang-soo’s oeuvre), any implication is subjective.

Ostensibly a story about women, the representation of men in The Woman Who Ran is conspicuous. Only seen from behind, either silhouetted or with cinematographer Kim Sumin’s camera practically poking over their shoulder, it’s as though the male characters are encroaching on something – not necessarily something they shouldn’t (after all, they’re only briefly interrupting a few seemingly perfunctory conversations), but their presence is negligible.

 Sang-soo, through a prolific lightness of touch in his 24th film, has created a piece of domestic realism that is breezy on the surface, but verges on being brittle in places. There’s much to read between the lines, however it’s entirely possible that audiences might find the reading material to be too slight. The Woman Who Ran is a reserved movie, and its reservation can feel a tad burdensome at times.

★★★★★

Oliver Johnston

The Woman Who Ran (Domangchin yeoja) does not have a UK release date yet.

Read more reviews from our Berlin Film Festival 2020 coverage here.

For further information about the event visit the Berlin Film Festival website here.

Watch the trailer for The Woman Who Ran (Domangchin yeoja) here:

 

Related Itemsreview

More in Berlinale

A River Runs, Turns, Erases, Replaces: An interview with filmmaker Shengze Zhu

Selina Sondermann
Read More

The Girl and the Spider: An interview with Ramon & Silvan Zürcher

Samuel Nicholls
Read More

Taste (Vị)

★★★★★
Oliver Johnston
Read More

Jesus Egon Christ (Jesus Egon Christus)

★★★★★
Catherine Sedgwick
Read More

Jesus Egon Christ: An interview with directors David and Saša Vajda

Ezelle Alblas
Read More

“There really hasn’t been a film that deals with a platonic male-female relationship in this way”: Natalie Morales and Mark Duplass discuss Language Lessons

Selina Sondermann
Read More

Berlinale 2021 winners: The full list

Naomi Schanen
Read More

A Cop Movie (Una película de policías)

★★★★★
Oliver Johnston
Read More

Human Factors (Der menschliche Faktor)

★★★★★
Selina Sondermann
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Movie and show review

Oliver Johnston

The Woman Who Ran (Domangchin yeoja)

★★★★★

Special event

  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • London’s best pizzas for takeaway and delivery
    Food & Drinks
  • The Year Earth Changed
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Cruise – Online
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Syml – Dim EP
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • Birdy at Wilton’s Music Hall Online
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • London’s Michelin-starred restaurants open al fresco right now – and all those re-opening in May
    Food & Drinks
  • Ride or Die
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Dad Stop Embarrassing Me!
    ★★★★★
    netflix
  • Live from the Barbican: Moses Boyd
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • Weezer with the LA Philharmonic and YOLA at the Walt Disney Concert Hall Online
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • London’s Michelin-starred restaurants open al fresco right now – and all those re-opening in May
    Food & Drinks
  • Live from the Barbican: Moses Boyd
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • The Secret Connection – Online
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Cruise – Online
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Birdy at Wilton’s Music Hall Online
    ★★★★★
    Live music
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Support us
  • What, when, why

Copyright © 2011-2020 FL Media

“Great art allows you to put yourself into it”: An interview with Last and First Men cinematographer Sturla Brandth Grøvlen
Berlin Film Festival 2019: Charlatan (Šarlatán) | Review