‘The Woman’ review: South Korean filmmaker Hwang Wook delivers ponderous psychological thriller

Dir. Hwang Wook. South Korea. 2025. 101mins.

The vacuum cleaner is prepared for its shut up. After serving as a vessel for the spirit of a just lately departed spouse in Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke’s satirical fantasy A Helpful Ghost, this humble family equipment now constitutes the hyperlink between a frequent job-hopper and a homicide suspect in Hwang Wook’s psychological thriller The Lady. Right here, it features as literal and figurative gadget in an prolonged opening that delivers a creepy South Korean indie riff on the woman-in-peril situation. But Hwang subsequently loses his storytelling focus, with numerous clues, conflicts and idiosyncratic character traits being sucked right into a narrative void.

A muddled and even noncommittal angle in the direction of plotting

The Lady receives its world premiere in Fantasia’s Cheval Noir competitors, and marks a lightning-quick return for Hwang, who was awarded the part’s 2024 greatest director prize for his eccentric western Mash Ville. Somewhat ponderous and infuriatingly inconclusive, The Lady is unlikely to really get beneath the pores and skin of attendees and will wrestle to snare a distribution deal. Nonetheless, it ought to allow Hwang to keep up his competition profile by way of additional engagements at Asian and genre-orientated occasions.

The titular feminine is Solar-kyung (Han Hye-ji), an unambitious school graduate who has simply relocated to a brand new neighbourhood the place she has discovered a job in a comfortable café. After recognizing an inventory for a second-hand vacuum cleaner on an internet swapping platform, Solar-kyung arranges to satisfy the proprietor Younger-hwan (Kim Hee-sang). She is quickly unsettled by his skittish method, their interactions turning into particularly awkward when Younger-hwan declines Solar-kyung’s thanks gesture of a field of strawberries on the premise of not accepting presents from strangers because of tragic household circumstances. Happily, Younger-hwan’s former classmate Ui-jin (Nam Yeon-woo) occurs by and forces a conclusion to the trade.

Though this intervention appears to eject Younger-hwan from Solar-kyung’s life, she receives a name the next day from detective Gained Jae Cha (Byun Jin-su) who informs her that Ui-jin has died by suicide. Sure particulars of her good friend’s premature demise immediate Solar-kyung to think about if Younger-hwan might the truth is be a assassin. These suspicions are compounded when Younger-hwan will get again in contact, ostensibly as a result of he offered the unsuitable charger for the equipment.

Shot largely in a pared-down method by cinematographer Lee Sung-won, The Lady performs initially as a lo-fi style train by establishing Solar-kyung’s humdrum routine and obvious vulnerability. Residing alone with out a lot of a social life, she appears to have a distant relationship together with her mom and is considerably naïve in the case of assembly folks by way of on-line boards. The scenes by which she first encounters Younger-hwan and later pretends to be out when he returns to trade chargers not solely mines the anxiousness of interacting with a stranger, but additionally construct to some extent of panic with out resorting to shock techniques.

Along with grounding style tropes in on a regular basis mundanity, this stretch is especially efficient due to the finely pitched performances: Han largely permits her protagonist to be a clean slate on which the viewers can venture their fears, whereas Kim displays a tightly wound nervousness that makes Younger-hwan unsettling but sympathetic.

Sadly, very like Younger-hwan’s makes an attempt at social niceties, the narrative quickly unravels. After an unnerving opening 40 minutes, Hwang expands the investigation into the attainable murder to absorb members of Solar-kyung’s school social circle. This consists of the immodest Sung-gu (Nam Jin-bok), an avid contributor to an internet crime discussion board, who occurs to work alongside Younger-hwan at an athletics membership. From this juncture, Hwang tries to upend viewers assumptions concerning Solar-kyung whereas utilizing the tenuously related set of supporting characters as an example how social malaise provides rise to vicious rumour-mongering, with weary public servants like Gained Jae Cha attempting to restrict the fallout. The disquieting music provides an eeriness to Hwang’s navigation of this unfastened intersection, however his irritating tendency to choose up and drop completely different threads makes it troublesome to tell apart between precise leads, purple herrings and thematic indicators.

Some mysteries are opaque by design. On this case, although, obfuscation stems from a muddled and even noncommittal angle in the direction of plotting. As such, an abrupt denouement that goals to place a sting within the tail is as an alternative more likely to trigger extreme head-scratching.