When is lesbian noir not lesbian noir? At first, Lee Hwan's Project Y registers as a sapphic thriller. Aren't femme escort Mi-seon (Han So-lee) and butch driver Do-gyeong (Jeon Jong-seo) pooling their resources so one can open a flower shop and the other can make goo-goo eyes at the owner? Yet before I could settle into the pleasures of their complicated criminal romance, these two end up in a room with maternal figure Ga-yeong (Kim Shin-rock), a manipulative, drug-using elder who both refer to as "mom." Eventually, it comes out that one is the birth child; the other, adopted... so perhaps their connection is more than familial; perhaps the relationship retains the erotic. But if so, this sisterhood has definitely upped the kink factor.
Now throw in hyperviolent henchwoman Bull (a bald-headed Jung Young-joo) and you'll find it impossible to let go of the queer framework. Even the presence of the gigolo bar, frequented as it may be by rich ladies dissatisfied with their husbands, connotes a gay millieu. I've been to those bars and the women are in the minority as clientelle. As for the male leads, neither comes close to creating a strong fascination: Club impressario To Sa-jang (Kim Sung-cheol) is a pretty boy who gets hard by cheating people of money. He's a nepo villain. He feels as though he's inherited his dastardliness and learned his viciousness as part of a bloody bloodline. Like many in real life.
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