RV: Resurrected Victims: The Love of a Mother

The central setup in RV: Resurrected Victims is a good one — select members of the dead are sending lookalike emissaries (with pronounced "zombie" affect) back from the grave to murder the ones responsible for their deaths. Afterwards, they self-immolate — a somewhat hellish bit of imagery. So why have these particular victims come back to exact revenge? Unclear. How long has this phenomenon been going on? Not sure. You see, there's a cover-up on that front! Most importantly, did ruthless, young prosecutor Seo Jin-ong (Kim Rae-Won) orchestrate the untimely end of his martyr of a momma (Kim Hae-sook)? Oh boy, that's also kinda hard to say.

In RV, people get pretty close to figuring it all out: special agent Lee (Jeon Hye-jin), a legal colleague (Sung Dong-il), even Seo's heavily medicated sister (Jung Young-man) who does a nice job of peeling an apple. But since these undead vigilantes tend to burst into flames after executing their killers, forthcoming answers are difficult to attain. Strangely, Kwak Kyung-taek's supernatural thriller ends up being very little about any insights we mortals might glean from the Other Side. If anything, the film is a roundabout message movie about the perils of drunk driving and an unconvincing argument about the importance of filial love. When you see your mom across the street, hurry to meet her and don't have liquor on your breath.

Sunflower: Less Fighting Please

Sheesh, this one was a downer. Sunflower is the pitiful tale of a recently released convict whose life spirals further downwards despite his vow of nonviolence moving forward. So while Kang Seok-beom's heartbreaking drama has plenty of ugly fight scenes, the hero (played as a kind of naif by Kim Rae-won) is generally getting beat up without ever striking back. As human punching bags go, he's the thoroughly bruised poster child. So who's he getting pummeled for? His adoptive mother (Kim Hae-sook), his bratty sister (Heo Yi-jae), and his mechanic boss (Lee Ho-sung)... Truthfully, you feel like he'd take a broken nose for anyone.

And so many people want to slug him: His cowardly childhood buddy (Han Jeong-su), the town's sickeningly evil mobster (Kim Byeong-ok), various thugs with various weapons, various high school students with various haircuts. Plus the world's laziest cop. Speaking of which, Sunflower may have one of the most unflattering portraits of the Korean police force committed to celluloid. The duo of officers who patrol this neighborhood are repeatedly witnesses to violence which they watch without ever lifting a hand to help. Their only concern seems to be to get some more food. When the final confrontation between the Job-like, beautifully-tattooed ex-con and the town's gang of lowlifes takes place, the only ones who escape his rage are the despicable boys in blue. Is this a form of social commentary?

Thirst: The Blood of Jesus Isn't Supposed to Get You Drunk

Thirst is a long movie. Yet what's wrong with long as long as long's not painful? And director Park Chan-wook is never painful. At least, not painfully boring. Park at his worst is a shocking curio, and an intelligent one at that. What is painful about Park (for the queasy) is his synthesis of gore and lore. But if the sight of a blister-covered, self-martyring priest-vampire (Song Kang-ho) vomiting blood through his recorder strikes you as horrifying and oddly hilarious, Thirst is your kind of picture. Actually, Thirst may be Park's funniest movie so far. One extended sequence focuses on how a deliriously cheerful drowning victim (Shin Ha-kyun) haunts the priest-vampire and his psychopathic soul mate (Kim Ok-bin); another has a paralyzed stroke-victim mother (Kim Hae-sook) revealing -- with eye blinks and finger taps -- that this same bloodthirsty duo has killed her son. Has anyone else shown a compassionate vampire feast on his drink of choice by using the feeding tube of a fat comatose patient as if it were a straw? Not that all the shocks are Grand Guignol grotesqueness. Thirst also contains some seriously hot sex scenes that equate Dracula's charms with masochism. Like the song says, you know it hurts so good.