Mist: The Foggy Town

When a big city pharmaceutical executive (Shin Seong-il) vacations in his sleepy hometown without his wife in tow, memories flood back as he reunites with former school buddies then falls into an affair with a local music teacher (Yoon Jeong-hee). Who's orchestrating this extramarital fling is a matter of opinion. Both seem to be manipulators who are going to end up feeling a bit abusive and used when this brief tryst comes to a close. Indeed, writer-director Kim Soo-yong's refusal to cast one as villain and one as victim is what makes Mist such an intriguing film. This is a movie more about mood and psychic states than action and conflict.

It's also exquisitely shot. Jang Seok-jun's black-and-white cinematography is a marvel to behold, especially the longshots in which we see the protagonist crossing an empty lot or moving in and out of a night fog with his love interest or witnessing a funeral procession passing by on a hilltop. Mist is a film comfortable with art for art's sake, with the idea that a picture can tell a story as well as dialogue. Watching a liquor bottle empty out on the floor thereby ruining a nearby paperback is a quick, concise way to show us someone is tired and drunk; just hallucinated ants on a work document lets us know someone is sick and tired of their job. This confident artfulness really elevates Mist to classic status. I'd watch it again. Won't you watch it once?

Death Bell: Their Final Exams Will Be Their Final Exam

Being at the top of the class is a mixed bag at Chang Ahn High School. Straight A's may get you into college but here they could also get you drowned in a fish tank or tossed to death in a dryer if your fellow students don't figure out that puzzle on the chalkboard in time. Death Bell's midterms of murder have something to do with a dead student whose killer remains at large. Since someone at C.A.H.S. did it, heads are going to roll until that someone confesses (and asks for an apology). Scholarship student Yi-na (Nam Gyu-ri) figures this out soon enough. Why not? She was buddy-buddy with the victim and knows what it means to study hard, only to land in fifth place on the honor roll. (That ranking gives her some breathing space when the serial killer is working down the list.) But Yi-na also knows how to have a good time, thanks to her friendship with Hyeon (Kim Bun), the school prankster who sidelines as a DJ and would definitely get better grades if he applied himself. Head teacher Mr. Hwang (Lee Beom-su) sure believes in Hyeon; Ms. Choi (Yoon Jeong-hee)? Not so much. But then she doesn't seem to believe in anyone except director Yoon Hong-seung who's giving her plenty of screen time to scream in his K-horror torture porn.