Escape: You Go, Girl!

You remember the movie trope of the diabolical homosexual? Well, that all-but-obsolete evil gay man is back in Lee Jong-pil's delicious North-Koreans-on-the-run movie Escape. This time he's taken the form of Ri Hyun-sang (Koo Kyo-hwan), a queeny major who we first observe when he's putting on a layer of chapstick with his pinky extended. The stereotype doesn't end at shiny lips either. He's got pomaded hair and high cheekbones, a bottle of hand lotion in the jeep and a backstory of winning international music contests with his flawless piano playing. Naturally, there's a young vaping pretty boy (Song Kang) who's part of that painful past, too.

Right now, this fabulously femme villain -- who never has a hair out of place -- is in mad pursuit of a pair of soldiers looking to escape North Korea's totalitarianism. One is Im Gyoo-nam (Lee Je-hoon) for whom Ri likely has a crush. The other is Gam Dong-hyuk (Hong Xa-bin), his lazy-eyed sidekick who is obviously doomed to die from the very start. Will the cute one make it to South Korea though? It certainly seems possible when a gang of nomadic, pistol-packing women exiled from town show up in the woods with artillery and attitude. Then again, hell hath no fury like a gay man scorned! Plus who wouldn't like the skin-enhancing properties that come with a quicksand mudbath, conveniently located at the 38th parallel.

Hopeless: Correct

How bleak can a life be? Writer-director Kim Chang-hoon's riveting feature debut Hopeless shows one that's extremely so. 17-year-old Yeon-gyu (Hong Xa-bin) has a family in debt, classmates who gang up on him, and a drunken stepfather (Yoo Seong-ju) who goes after him with a newly purchased baseball bat. The only place he's able to find (temporary) sanctuary is with cool-headed gangster Chi-geon (Song Joong-ki) who takes him under his wing, although the why is never clear. I have my theory. Anyone else pick up on some homoerotic tension? Regardless, love of any sort is not going to save the day. Because life goes from bad to worse pretty quickly.

Yeon-gyu loses his part-time job as a food deliver for small-time restaurant owner (Jeong Man-sik) when a new facial scar alienates the customer base. His new criminal boss' boss sees him as a killing tool, not a human being. And his step-sister Ha-yan (Kim Hyung-seo a.k.a. Bibi) is getting harrassed at school and needs his assistance. Even when he shares his life story with Chi-geon, his listener responds with a fairly blank stare. Yet Yeon-gyu's struggle to survive and maintain a moral center despite his shit-town surroundings makes Hopeless more than a trip to the dark(est) side. Surely we can do better as a species! Clothing and feeding the poor is just the beginning.