Holiday in Seoul: An Off Day Off

Ob-gyn doctor Yang Mi-hie (Nam Hui-won) has quite the day planned for herself and her husband, reporter Song Jae-guan (No Neung-kyeol): shopping for a man's tie and a woman's beach umbrella at the Shin Shin Department Store, some time at the beach, a picket boat ride, Chinese food at Asawon, water skiing on the Han River, a visit to Deoksu Royal Palace, a yet-to-be-determined movie, some dinner at the Grill, and then an outdoor concert with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. He thinks this all sounds like too much. And he's right. Because they're both going to be incredibly busy today — he'll be getting the scoop on a killer after being kidnapped by an old lady with a mentally ill daughter who acts out love scenes and death scenes histrionically; she'll be consulting with women who clearly want abortions before she delivers a baby to an ailing woman who just happens to be the killer's wife.

They're not the only two having jam-packed days. His reporter friends are pulling pranks and scamming drinks; her fellow wives are out to carouse while the men are away; and their next-door neighbors are in an emotional tumult because that devious wife is having an affair and that cuckolded husband is smashing up stuff in the living room, including a framed portrait of James Dean. That doesn't even include the Lothario who runs a shady sidewalk gambling scam or the drunk man across the street who returns from an all-night bender to discover his unmarried daughter is now pregnant. Oh yes, there's a lot of plot in Lee Yong-min's Holiday in Seoul, not to mention a white snake that appears out of nowhere and a strange instrumental use of the song "God Bless America" while the doctor stares patiently at an intravenous drip.

It's Not Her Sin: She's Got Her Finger on the Trigger

Shin Sang-ok's not-quite-noir-but-close It's Not Her Sin is a movie that parcels out its info in very small packages since neither husband Sang-ho (No Neung-kyeol) nor wife Seong-hui (Ju Jeung-nyeo) nor adopted sister Yeong-suk (Choi Eun-hie, the Queen of Sighs) nor her boyfriend Myeong-chil is initially willing to talk about why a married mother might pull a gun on her recently engaged best friend on a staircase inside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This reluctance to speak also leaves the prosecutor the difficult tasks of figuring out why someone was trying to pawn off a wedding gift to raise one million won in quick cash and how a couple with no issues could possibly only have one child after eight years of marriage. To him that's strange! So if he doesn't get some answers fast, something terrible could happen. Not jail time exactly but a fate much, much worse... namely, divorce!

Which leads to the extended flashback that in turn leads to its own series of gnarly questions like... What's the sin referenced in the film's title? Is it pre-marital sex with a sleazy ladies' man (Jeon Taek-yi) or a coerced abortion with an unlicensed physician? Is it smuggling goods out of Japan or having a baby boy out of wedlock? Is it chain-smoking or bribery? Adultery? Lying? I personally think it's the sin of omission that haunts these characters. Speak up, people, and you may taste the delicious freedom that comes with living honestly.

Some particularly memorable moments outside the flashy open: adopted toddler Sik shoots at his birth mother with a toy machine gun then refuses her loving embrace; a slick-haired buyer of goods says, "Money is like a woman. It gives birth to more"; two women embrace after one shoots the other because girls gotta stick by each other!