Beasties Boys: Boy Hookers, Girl Hookers and Not a Lot of Romance

Prostitution is a messy affair and prostitutes in love are even messier. So while you might think Yun Jong-bin's Beastie Boys (a.k.a. The Moonlight of Seoul) is going to be a salacious bit of peekaboo concerning as it does Seung-woo (Yun Gye-sang), the rookie gigolo who falls in love with experienced call girl Ji-won (Yun Jin-seo), while he's working at a host bar pouring drinks out to cougars, this depressing drama serves up a lot more domestic anguish than it does backroom titillation. That's because director Yun is super-aware that professional seduction is the art of the con and that if you make a living out of a certain type of behavior then that same behavior is going to spill over into all other parts of your life.

So since Ji-won makes a living lying to men (and laying men), her being a scam artist too is inevitable because she can't help thinking of a better deal, a better setup, a richer life, a quicker fix. It's all part of her daily thinking. Jae-hyeon (Ha Jung-woo), Seung-woo's mentor, has been in the business even longer and he takes the compulsiveness even further — gambling, double-dealing, cheating, and extorting self-righteously without even a trace of guilt. Get tangled up with one of these warper sex-workers, as Seung-woo's sister Han-byeol (Lee Seung-min) does, and you're going to end up fleeced and heartbroken.

But Beastie Boys' descent into degradation and despair isn't as straightforward as this might suggest. On screen the story plays out as first as a rocky bromance alongside a sweetly unlikely romance. When things fall apart, as they tend to do in social realist dramas, all alliances are off. And it's not just every man and woman for his or her self, it's also "vengeance is mine." Since no one has been dealt a fair hand in life, these characters are out to win at all costs, and if not win then get into a different game, and if not that then make sure the competition is wiped out and that justice is served, no matter how much it hurts. This is a world in which the conscience has been devalued, which also means that guilt is scarily absent. Not a great film, Beastie Boys falls into that category of not-half-bad movies that periodically seize your attention with unexpected force.

Lovers of 6 Years: Masochists for Eternity

Someone please pass me a razor blade. Lovers of 6 Years is one depressing romance. We're supposed to believe that the two lovebirds — Da-jin (Kim Ha-neul) and Jae-young (Kim Ha-neul) — are meant for each other because they share a few common interests: namely bickering, crying and cheating. Yet while misery loves company, I don't know that I'd recommend shacking up with a longterm partner because he or she makes you feel like crap and you do the same for him or her. There must be a better way to bond than commiseration. Not that Jae-young's alternative amour, Ji-eun (Cha Hyeon-jeong), comes across any better. She's a flirtatious sociopath who jokes about poisoning him and slicing him up into little pieces so she can take him in her new suitcase when she flies to Santiago. It's no wonder he wants to get back with Da-jin. But Da-jin definitely could do better.

Jin-seong (Sin Seong-rok), the guy with whom she has her reciprocal fling, is both taller and more talented than Jae-young. Even considering that he may be egocentric and eccentric, Jin-seong strikes me as one of those once-in-a-lifetime guys who are too-good-to-be-true if you don't believe you deserve the very best. And after six years with Jae-young, Da-jin's ego has been whittled down enough so that she doesn't think she's worthy of someone that great. That's my take. This is a woman who has reconciled herself to the idea that if she's invested six years of her life with a remorseless, cheating jerk who's more concerned with getting laid than he is about that lump in her breast, well then, she might as well spend the next sixty with him too. Familiarity is her comforter. Note to Da-jin: Familiarity also breeds contempt. (It's good to use cliches when describing a movie so full of them.) Co-writer/director Park Hyeon-jin also suggests that Da-jin might be pregnant by way of a scene early on in which Jae-young insists that they have sex without a condom and then a few more scenes which reveal Da-jin's subsequently unappeasable appetite. Coincidence? Probably not. It's possible that Da-jin subconsciously knows that she's knocked up and recognizes that Jin-seong, the handsome artist who's also illustrating her first novel, might not stick around if he finds out that her baby isn't his. Best to stick with the guy who caused it. If nothing else, you'll get child support.