VIRGIN STRIPPED BARE BY HER BACHELORS

Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors was writer/director Hong Sang-soo's (Turning Gate) third feature, and his first to be released on DVD in the United States. As the black-and-white film opens, a wealthy young man, Jae-hoon (Jeong Bo-seok), arrives at a hotel room, and examines it while he waits for a woman to join him. Soo-jung (Lee Eun-ju of Tae Guk Gi) phones him after a while, and tries to get out of their planned tryst. They argue on the phone. The film then flashes back to show us, in numbered and sometimes titled episodes, how the relationship between these two characters developed. Jae-hoon was working as an assistant to a struggling filmmaker, Young-soo (Mun Seong-kun of A Petal). After several social engagements, Jae-hoon suggests to Young-soo that he might be interested in financing his next film. Jae-hoon begins to pursue Soo-jung, who keeps him at bay for a while. But Jae-hoon is persistent, and eventually, she relents. She lets him know that she is a virgin. Eventually, it becomes clear that Young-soo also has a romantic interest in Soo-jung. Jae-hoon gets jealous, and he and Young-soo get into a big argument, but they patch things up, and make plans to go to an expensive hotel on Cheju Island where, presumably, they will have sex. At the film's midway point, Hong returns us to the first chapter, and we are taken through the story again, with many changes to the action -- some subtle and some more severe. The film's English-language title is an apparent reference to Marcel Duchamp's artwork, The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even. The original Korean title is the far more prosaic Oh! Soo-jung.