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    Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors (Oh! Soo-Jung) rating 1/5Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors (Oh! Soo-Jung)
   

         
     
     
  Director Hong Sang-soo
Writer Hong Sang-soo
Stars Lee Eun-joo, Jung Bo-suk, Moon Sun-keun
Running time 127 minutes
Made Korea 2000

VOTED best title of the festival by a group of men in sticky raincoats, Virgin (etc) is actually an understated story of sex and romance in Seoul.

Shot in black-and-white, writer/director Hong Sang-soo plays with structure by telling and re-telling the story, subtly changing events so we can see the characters react under differing circumstances (sort of a Run, Soo-jung Run.)

What emerges is a tale in which Soo-jung's virginity attracts her suitors, yet becomes an issue that also holds them away. In the first large segment of the film (Perhaps An Accident) Jae-hoon is Soo-jung's frustrated follower. In the second (Perhaps an Intention) it appears that Soo-jung's motives for losing her virginity may be to do with being freed from being viewed purely as an exciting sexual conquest.

Unfortunately, like Hal Hartley's Flirt, Sang-soo's film is an interesting experiment that ultimately irritates. Sadly, this is a slight tale which doesn't sustain the 2 hour running time due to a flat script and under-explored characters.

Ferret

 

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