While her husband is on a business trip, Gamhee meets three women on the outskirts of Seoul. She first visits two close friends at their homes; the third, an older acquaintance, she encounters by chance at an independent cinema.
On the surface, Hong Sangsoo’s 24th film sees this masterful filmmaker in an even more minimalistic mode, paring down his style – heavy on long takes, dialogue and zooms – to its essence, and presenting the three rendezvous with slight repetitions and variations.
Yet the film’s breezy structure is punctuated by unwelcome interactions with interrupting, irate males. Gamhee in particular leaves much unsaid in conversations with her friends, but this still resonates. And then there’s the enigmatic title. Who is the woman who ran?
Hong’s topic is the human condition: what it is like to be and to live as expressed by the way we communicate. Enigmatic and quietly captivating.