Starting Point: Lost From the Beginning

There's a lot that's undisclosed in Lee Man-hui's thriller Starting Point. What's in those papers that our most moral mobster (Shin Sung-il) is trying to steal from the office safe? Do they merit killing the security guard? What instructions are passed on to the prostitute (Mun Hie) before she joins him on a mock honeymoon? And why must these two pose as newyweds at a campsite where people dance around a campfire to rock 'n roll? Lee — and his screenwriter Kim Ji-hyeon — have no intention on filling in the gaps. Which makes this 1960s noir a puzzler, that perhaps only repeat viewings can solve.

After a single screening courtesy of the Korean Film Archive's YouTube channel, the movie remained a conundrum. For while the hooker may have be the bait of her mock groom, she's also the one person on his side once trouble escalates. Their faux fieldtrip to Mount Seorak is fraught with peril once the hoods come out to hunt down them down. So will either survive? And would either of them want to, should the other die? Would a stack of money help? You see, they've fallen in love. And how do you repay someone for breaking your heart? I promise you, it's even harder in the snow. And tougher on a staircase!

Traces: War Dance

The Japanese leadership's inability to fathom why a Korean wouldn't want to pretend to be Japanese during occupation could be viewed as dimwitted patriotism. Yet as one savvy soldier notes: Why would a Korean want to adopt a Japanese name when "Japan is using Koreans as human shields"? In Shin Sang-ok's Traces, the resistance to this arrogant oppressor gets personal, too, once Korean gisaeng (Mun Hie) discovers that the Japanese artist (Oh Yeong-il) painting her portait is the son of the soldier that killed her dad.

She's not wrong to think less of him. He's one of those guys who believes that love allows him to compromise the safety of everyone — and so he stalks an independence activist (Lee Dae-yeob) who owes him a favor which he keeps cashing in. When said activist gives him a lecture on the purpose of "the movement," you almost expect him to say, "Yes, that sounds like an important cause but can't you help me win back my lady?" Luckily, he doesn't have time to say that, because there's a raid...followed by a rainstorm and a drawing class and a prize for his oil painting (which is withdrawn since he won't change its name). The draft propels him towards the front line. Desertion won't bring him any closer. "36 years of pain won't go away that easily."

An Early Rain: Who's the Drip?

The giddy excitement a new raincoat elicits from spacey hired domestic (Mun Hie) seems like that of a child. "What should I do? This raincoat is changing my life?" she queries after a frolic at the local nightclub where she finds herself the somewhat improbably unparalleled object of desire for all the suits and the musicians on site. The one who continues in hot pursuit of her is a womanizing mechanic (Shin Sung-il), who — mistaking her for the daughter of the French Ambassador — dumps his sugar mama, hustles his former flings, and gets himself a new suit so he can... take her to a bar for a televised wrestling match?

Not exactly the ideal date but she seems to like it well enough. Hell, she even stays in good spirits when, on the way back home, the stolen car gets a flat tire and the engine conks out. Is it love? A mutual infatuation? Or two young people projecting their fantasies of a better life on each other's mistaken identities? I suppose for some people that might pass for romance and could even end up in troublesome marriage if neither party gets found out.

But the opportunities to find out are somewhat limited in Jeong Jin-woo's An Early Rain because their dates are dictated by the weather: These two only meet when there's a downpour. Are gray skies ahead for this pair of pretenders? Of course, they are... which leads to fun times at the roller rink, the amusement park, the horse track, and a boat ride. And less fun times, that remind you that though money can't buy you love, it can purchase something more disturbing and more violent.