The new South Korean movie "Hommage" centers on a middle-aged filmmaker, Kim Ji-wan (Lee Jeong-eun), who seems to have hit a wall in a career she entered relatively late in life.
In the opening scene, she and her producer, a woman who has been her friend longer than either has been in the movie business, attend a cineplex screening of her third and latest work, "Ghost Man." The theater is practically empty. Though the scene is played for laughs, it portends a scary future for Kim that resonates throughout "Hommage." Neither her college-age son nor her husband support her career and often complain that she doesn't fulfill her responsibilities as a wife and mother. She feels guilty, but also resentful.
Kim's difficulties are tied directly to the fact that she's a woman. Though she doesn't make the kind of films that earn a lot of money — her son bluntly says they're boring — most of her professional problems stem from other people's expectations, which are based on her gender.