Made in China: Partly Made by Kim Ki-duk

Although directed by Kim Dong-hoo, the political flick Made in China largely bears the mark of its screenwriter Kim Ki-duk. Many of the auteur's standard ingredients are here: a largely silent central character, the random eruptions into violence, performances that careen from wooden to histrionic... And who else but Kim Ki-duk would build his movie around a Chinese eel farmer (Park Gi-woong) who needs to get his eel tested for mercury by a scientist (Han Chae-ah) who wants to suck his eel in her apartment. That particular relationship gets even weirder when she's wolfing down Chinese snackfood as a way to prove she's not xenophobic so she can get him back into her bed. (I don't know what she was eating but it definitely wasn't White Rabbit Cream Candy.)

Kim Ki-duk has pulled off outlandish plots before — the prison musical Breath, the summer-winter relationship of The Bow — but it's gotta be tough to get into his head as a fellow director. Sure, Jang Hun did it in the terrific action pic Rough Cut. I think that film is atypical for Kim Ki-duk, though, whereas Made in China is more quintessential. Which makes this particular movie feel like an apprentise work being done with the blessing of its mentor who should never be copied or imitated, only respected with caveats.