Influenza: Intentionally Short and Not So Sweet

Watching a short film as my Korean movie of the week can feel a bit like cheating as if, by not dedicating a full two hours to the experience, I'm somehow coming up short myself. Yet, it's hard to argue against "Influenza" as a this week's pic when you consider the director is Bong Joon-ho, the most famous director from South Korea. Initially commissioned for the Jeonju Digital Project omnibus (which also includes Yu Lik-Wai's "Dance with Me to the End of Love" and Sogo Ishii's "Mirrored Mind," Bong's contribution to the trilogy is more an experimental sketch than a full-blown flick. Yun Je-mun stars as a petty criminal who robs old people at bank machines, often accompanied by his thug girlfriend played by Go Su-hee.

All the action is taken from CCTV footage, grainy images ostensibly from Yanghwa Bridge, a parking lot, various ATM foyers, and city street corner. Dialogue is at a minimum since most of the "found footage" is without sound. Occasionally, the violence is unsettling: an attack in a parking lot with a pipe and a hammer is especially unsettling. Same for an elderly man hacked in a vestibule. Better are the scenes that verge on the absurd, like when the two crooks gently trip an old woman then carefully lower her to the floor before making off with her cash, her bank card, and her code. A curio more than a must-see, "Influenza" is strictly for Bong Joon-ho superfans.

Missing You: The Legacy of Serial Killing

I think it's safe to say that Korean cinema has an obsession with serial killers. Hit movies like The Chaser, I Saw the Devil, and Memories of Murder have become iconic while others like Tell Me Something, Save the Green Planet, and Monster arguably should be. Add to that evergrowing serial killing catalogue of excellence, the heart-pounding Missing You, Mo Hong-jin's warpedly effective thriller which features two mass murderers pursued by the lunatic child of a long-dead victim. (This mentally deranged survivor is racking up a string of killings all her own, thank you very much.) Indeed, everyone in Missing You is violently unwell: recently released madman Kim Kee-beom (Kim Sung-oh) who favors stabbing, his insane childhood buddy Jung Min-Soo (Oh Tae-kyung) who prefers slicing, their primary threat, hyperfocused vigilante Nam Hee-ju (Shim Eun-kyung), and the not-so-brightm police officer assigned to the case Dae-yeong (Yun Je-mun), a man so obsessed with fingering Kim for every crime that he overlooks a lot of clues pointing in another direction.

Is the cop's fixation on the ex-con understandable? I think so. Kim's performance as Kim is supercreepy. Who wouldn't want to see him put back in the slammer for whatever? Yet Kim's hardly the craziest character on screen. That honor belongs to Shim's Nam, who's covered one wall floor-to-ceiling with yellow post-it notes of Nietzsche quotes while her inherited basement apartment's floor boards are carpeted with articles and images related to a series of unsolved killings dating back to her traumatic childhood. Her choice to knit scarves for every member of the precinct where she serves as a mascot isn't simply redirected obsessive-compulsive behavior energy, it's also one small part of an elaborate plan leading up to the day when the courts will sentence whoever eventually gets caught. Will she be there for the trial? And if she does, will she be dressed once again like the Morton Salt Girl? Watch Missing You and see.

The Last Princess: Elevating Royalty

There's a pretty powerful disclaimer at the start of The Last Princess: "Incidents and persons portrayed do not reflect historical facts." So then what are we to believe about Yi Deokhye, the subject of this biopic? Was she a royal rebel who bravely snubbed the Japanese emperor's dress code and rallied fingerless Korean workers to rise up against their Japanese oppressors? Did she try to escape her gilded cage and get back to Korea as an act of solidarity with her countrymen? Was she the first to discover the assassination of her father, the king? In truth, much of Hur Jin-ho's costume dram is conjectural; it's a pro-dynastic movie posing as a anticolonial diatribe. Considering the history we do know regarding Japan's occupation, I'm okay with that.

And Son Ye-jin makes a convincing princess, struggling to balance her patriotism with her desire to survive. She's got a few people in her corner: an adoring servant (Ra Mi-ran), a couple of ineffectual brothers, and a soldier-spy (Park Hae-il) who doubles as her devoted, sexless romantic interest. Unfortunately, she's also got an evil Korean Benedict Arnold (Yun Je-mun) whose sole mission in life is to be her foil, derailing every attempt she makes to escape, to evade, to exalt. As fantasies go, if The Last Princess has any faults, it's that this heinous henchman never gets his just desserts. Director Hur may see this dark detail as a bitter dose of reality. Since so much is already made up, I'm not gonna quibble here. Finally, if Hollywood were more open to performances in foreign tongues, Son's lead turn would definitely have qualified as Oscar-bait — as she ages from 20s to 70s while screaming, crying, looking fashionable, looking nervous, and ultimately going insane. I was crazy about her in the best way possible.

Remember: Jason and Freddy

Since the Korean War ended in 1953, I'm not sure the math totally works out with Remember, a thriller about Freddy (Lee Sung-min), a beloved geriatric waiter at TGIF, who hires his co-worker Jason (Nam Joo-hyuk) as a driver so he can execute a series of vigilante executions for fellow countrymen who profitted from aligning with the Japanese during occupation. That would make all the guilty men tweens which makes their actions seem infinitely less calculating, although not less upsetting. I personally allowed myself to succumb to this revenge fantasy's logic. Justice is in such short supply lately, that a one-man judge-jury-executioner who's going after slimeballs with good PR teams has serious appeal.

Especially when the two lead actors — Lee and Nam — have such undeniable chemistry. Whether they're evading Detective Kang (Jeong Man-sik) or outwitting a middle-management menace (Yun Je-mun), you never doubt these two have each other's back. And writer-director Lee Il-hyeong's script provides plenty of conflicts that find the two in double-David versus gang Goliath scenarios and last-minute escapes. It's weird to have a movie that's so dark elicit "That's so cute" reactions so regularly but the statement was never made without pleasure. Running over two hours, Remember kept me up late without regret.

Hot Blooded: Once Upon a Time in Korea: Vodka Wars

Middle management sucks. Per Cheon Myeong-Gwan's gorgeously shot gangster pic Hot Blooded, that maxim holds true in the mafia, too. Mid-level mobster/hotel-manager Hee-su (Jung Woo) is its shining example, a career thug so in debt from gambling that "once you're out, your organs are all mine" — according to his neighborhood loan shark (Yun Je-mun). But how can he break out on his own without losing the little rank he's attained? Is loyalty not worth a dime? Has he aged out of his own future? This movie's message seems to be that greed has really messed everything up! A valid point of view.

Which is why Hee-su decides to traffic in black market vodka. He sees hustling stolen booze as his big break, his final chance to make a name for himself in the port town of Kuam. And you know what? In a different movie, his chances might not be so iffy. Upper mobility in Hot Blooded, however, is going to require a complete lack of morals. This is soul-selling time! Can you be good and rich? Or more specifically, can you become rich and stay good? Rarely, my friend. Rarely.

In fact, what once was the American dream is now the Capitalist nightmare, an international phenomenon in which every transgression can be forgiven if you're making money hand over fist. Drugs, drink, gambling, prostitution, murder... everything is excusable. How you earn your bank is secondary to how much ends up in the kitty. It's a distasteful POV, despite its global sweep, and one which puts no value on a human life. Including that of a childhood friend (Ji Seung-hyeon). All that matters is glamorous independence. Today's reality acknowledges that money's a more effective shield than innocence. Perhap it always has been that way. As George Bernard Shaw once quipped: "Morals are a luxury of the rich."

Private Eye: Snoop Gets Major Scoop

Jang Kwang-su (Ryu Deok-hwan) is a gifted medical student who chances upon a dead body that he uses to further his skill set as a surgeon. Hong Jin-ho (Hwang Jung-min) makes his living by taking scandalous photos of women having affairs then getting those pics published in the local paper, no doubt with salacious copy. So when Jang realizes that his practice corpse is the son of a political dignitary, he naturally enlists Hong to track down the murderer. Why shouldn't a photojournalist who stalks down unfaithful spouses be able to track down a serial killer? Okay, I'll admit that's a bit of a jump but if you're willing to take it, Park Dae-min's Private Eye is highly entertaining.

In supporting roles, neither Oh Dal-su nor Yun Je-mun may be giving the performance of a lifetime as a shady military officer and an even shadier circus performer but even at 70 percent capacity, they keep the action moving. Vastly more effective is Uhm Ji-won who plays an inventor who aspires to be the greatest scientist in Korean history and in most movies would also be doubling as a love interest but here is improbably but delightfully not. She may have longings for Hong but she's infinitely more committed to astronomy and James Bond-worthy gadgetry than she is to snagging her man. Anyway, she's smart to set her sights elsewhere since so many of this movie's men aren't interested in women at all. I won't add any spoilers now but I will say that what they desire instead may not be what you first suspect.

P.S. If you're wondering why the younger trapezist looks familiar, that's because actress Kim Hyang-gi grew up to star in the Along with the Gods franchise.

Fists of Legend: Their Friendship Has a Fighting Chance

Fists of Legend has a great central premise -- a reality show in which middle-aged men fight each other and professional mixed martial artists in an attempt to reclaim the "legendary" status they once had as teens. Some win; most get their asses whupped. It's a concept so good that you'd think the movie was based on an already-existing, internationally franchised TV series. Au contraire, the screenplay is based on a popular Korean webtoon. Such humble beginnings! Perhaps a reality TV series lies ahead? Let the network bidding wars begin... In the meantime, actors Hwang Jeong-min, Yu Jun-sang and Yun Jae-moon bring a certain reality to the pseudo-sports event -- and the back stories that lead to the squared circle -- with naturalistic performances weighted by the disappointment that comes from being halfway through a life that you're only experiencing halfway.

Hwang's character is the owner of an unsuccessful noodle shop; Yu plays an overlooked publicist for a construction company; Yun, a tattooed ex-con. Way back in the day, they were The Three Musketeers -- one an Olympian contender; another the toughest kid at school; the final, the toughest kid at that school's rival. The only one in their crowd to have succeeded -- the fourth musketeer played by Jung Woong-in -- has evolved from spoiled rich kid to unscrupulous business magnate whose abuse of wealth and power has only gotten worse over time.

Bullied by a television producer (Lee Yu-won) who should be someone's love interest but isn't, the three non-rich, now-estranged friends are recruited for a mega-match of middle-aged mixed martial artistry that promises $200,000 for the winner (and ratings galore for the struggling producer). Through a series of flashbacks -- ironically, better acted than the present-day scenes -- you learn why the friendships fell apart and see what dreams were crushed along the way. The takeaway? Big-eared Hwang and his pouty young counterpart Park Jung-min were the coolest then and now. But does the most likable character win? This is a Korean movie after all. You'll have to watch it to see.

Antarctic Journal: Get to the Point (of Inaccessibility, That Is)

I'd never heard of a "point of inaccessibility" before Antarctic Journal. Evidently, the term refers to a geographical location that's extremely difficult to access, often because of its distance from the coast. Reaching such a landmark is a source of pride for explorers because it's so challenging. For the general public, however, there's little to recommend a POI (as it's sometimes called). The same could be said for Antarctic Journal, the pseudo-horror flick by director Yim Pil-sung (and co-written by auteur Bong Joon-ho). It's for extremists only. In other words, if you're committed to being a completist and seeing every movie starring Song Kang-ho then then you're eventually going to have to watch this dud about a South Korean crew searching for the South Pole's POI.

Which isn't to say that Song isn't good. As the merciless captain who hallucinates memories of his son's suicide when he isn't letting his crew members die one by one, the actor keeps the action grounded, which isn't easy given how much appears to be shot in front of a green screen. Keeping it real can only take you so far though, and what is real, really? Not the sudden nose bleed that he gets at one point. Not the novice (Yu Ji-tae) who he cavalierly bequeaths the ominous British expedition diary that they find in the snow. Not the cynical cohort (Yun Je-mun) who can't persuade anyone how crazy the captain obviously is. Not even the cheerful radio operator (Kang Hye-jeong) who flies off in a search helicopter when captain and company "vanish into thin air." I'm not saying, Antarctic Journal needed to be a naturalistic take on a devastating expedition, but shots of a frozen eyeball and a ghostly woman's hand come across as pretty random and just leave me wondering whether the film is about to take a serious left turn. Maybe it did. Over and over. Which is another way of saying Antarctic Journal just goes in circles. And made me rethink my initial plan to curate a Song movie marathon, despite how wonderful I still think he is.