Youn Yuh-jung won the Oscar for best supporting actress for the American film "Minari" (2020), but over the last 20 years she's been very active in her native South Korea, and I've enjoyed her work in "The Bacchus Lady", "Canola", "The Taste of Money" and "The Housemaid." Her film career began in 1971 with Kim Ki-young's "Woman on Fire", which was basically a re-hash of his original "Housemaid" (1960), but until 2003 she only made 4 more films It was presumably gratitude for Kim having given her her big break that led Youn to appear in this, the last film Kim made, which has also been called "An Experience to Die For" and "Angel, Become an Evil Woman." It was ready for release in 1990, but as you'll see from the Trivia above, Kim was so unhappy with it that it wasn't seen until after he died in 1998.
Kim's instincts were right, and I should have followed mine. I found "Woman on Fire" unbearable, but being a fan of Youn I tried again: this one was even worse. I walked out again, but this time 5 or 6 people beat me to it. The film looks and sounds awful (with bizarre, clanging music), and most of the acting is crude. The synopsis suggests a SK variation on Hitchcock's "Strangers m a Train", but don't get your hopes up. Hitch was one of the greats. Kim has been succeeded by much superior South Korean directors, and was to film-making what three generations of Kims up north have been to democracy.
