The title of the film is a translation of a line from a poem by Louis Aragon that the director saw printed on a French postcard.

It didn't enjoy a particularly successful theatrical run; the total attendance figure of 284,872 ranked it 46th out of 75 domestic feature-length releases in the country in 2004.

Unlike Oldboy, Woman Is the Future of Man did not win any of the awards and reportedly met with a mostly unenthusiastic reception.

[4] It was the third film of director Hong Sang-soo to be screened in Cannes, following The Power of Kangwon Province (1998) and Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors (2000), and the first to be entered in the competition category.

[9] Duane Byrge of The Hollywood Reporter was less positive, calling the film amateurish, a dud compositionally and accused the story of being plodding.