What Happens in an Alley: Children of a Debtor's God

The story of a financially-burdened business executive (Kim Seung-ho) with nine children, a seamstress wife, and a dependent mother, What Happens in an Alley intermittently registers as topical dramedy, its soundtrack buoyed by lighthearted vibraphone. Eventually, however, matters take the inescapable dark turn. What were you expecting? The title alone conjures up images of dirty needles, makedo toilets, illegal abortions, and sordid sexual escapades. Plus the company boss has a Hitlerian mustache and a Maoish uniform. Who couldn't foresee that director Park Jong-ho's slice-of-life flick would switch into social-realist mode?

Until it does, though, coming home drunk will be a chance for slapstick; marital arguments will culiminate in one-liners with dark undercurrents. As for this movie's recurring obsession with baby-making, that plot-point leads to weird scenes like one with an unhelpful obstretrician (Kim Hee-kab) and another with an unmarried woman (Kim Ji-mee) being groomed to carry the seed of an heirless married man. What these characters fail to realize is that there are worse things in life than childlessness. Like appendicitis, bribery, robbery, domestic violence, sexual assault, and living paycheck-to-paycheck. And What Happens in an Alley has those tragedies, too. Which makes it a pretty good movie. Or should I say melodrama?

Three O'Clock on a Rainy Afternoon: A Love Pentagon

Three O'Clock on a Rainy Afternoon is one of those tragic romances that's so fraught it seems likely that someone might kill themselves while listening to opera. The only question is who? The Korean-American war correspondent (Lee Min) whose bride abandons him before the honeymoon? The violin player who unknowingly crushes on his best friend? The young woman (Kim Ji-mee) who's promised herself to two possible husbands? The homegrown veteran (Choi Mu-ryong) with severe depression and a cane? The undergraduate music student who seems to fall for everyone while no one really cares? Oh yes, there's a lot of frustration in this love pentagon. But as to leaping into oblivion, as one character puts it, "I was too weak-willed to go through with it."

There's also a lot of Western references in director Park Jong-ho's heartbreaker circa 1959: a jazz band at the army barracks, another one at The Pagoda nightclub, a ballet company doing pas de deux, a music class with a few bobbysoxers, some wedding vows spoken in English, and a professed proficiency in the cha-cha. They've even adopted one truly unsettling American ethic in this post-war Korea. Per one drunken, former G.I.: "I miss the battlefields on a night like this. When I felt frustrated, I would point my gun at the enemy. After a round of firing, my heart would feel much lighter." Gun therapy! (And yes, this is the type of guy who would take a slug a woman... and does.) Soon enough, you're no longer wondering if one of these character is going to slit wrists and taking bets on which one might pull out a pistol and shoot another in a fit of passion. Well, someone does die. But not in that way either.