Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors: Contradicting Style

Hong Sang-soo is a fascinating filmmaker, his style is so strongly defined by a lack of devices and manipulation, devoting himself entirely to achieving genuine and ‘real’ moments in his films. However within this framework of minimalism, possibly a result of his quick turnover of new projects, he plays around and in my opinion Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors (or Oh! Soojung) is a film which turns to structure as a means to create interest in the film.

The film shows two sides of a woman’s promiscuous relationship floating between two men, and thus the film is split into two sections which are themselves split into chapters. The interesting this here is that we do not get access to all the chapters in both stories; as the first number to appear on the screen is a ‘2’ you are immediately caught off guard—we’re starting with chapter 2? This is a section about 2 parts? This section is titled 2? We have no idea. This only becomes clear later. However this structure proved to be one of the few points of interest in the film, amid flat characters and a somewhat un-engaging narrative. This is especially disastrous given Hong’s style depends precisely on rich characters and highly emotional personal narratives.

But maybe it wasn’t that the film was narratively unengaging or that the characters were flat but instead the foregrounding of the films structure (via the extra-diegetic intertitles and it’s non-linearity) contrast the style Hong Sang-soo depends on for his films to flourish into such emotionally engaging pieces. Taking, for example, his most recent work The Day Afterwhich runs a linear and somewhat predictable course yet achieving a hugely strong emotional impression through its masterful use of pacing, stylistic coherence, convincing performances and (key) avoiding any breaks from the diegesis (arguably barring Hong’s signature zooms, which take some getting used to). Therefore maybe Oh! Soojung is so alienating exactly because Hong places two highly contrasting styles into direct conversation: one which foregrounds form and technique opposing one that attempts side-lined formal awareness in favour of quietly immersing the viewer into a ‘real’ experience.

Yet with all this said, and even my negative reaction to the film as a whole, I feel it is still hugely positive for such a recognisable filmmaker, with a very rigid style, to be experimenting. For we'll never better ourselves if we don't try anything new.

Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors (2000)

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