Manchurian Tiger: The Hero's a Kitten

Right off you suspect the pulp movie Manchurian Tiger is going to be a sadistic affair. One man gets face-stomped by a wooden clog; another is mercilessly whipped on the floor. Neither puts up much resistance. Whether we watch these acts as bemusedly detached as the cigarette-smoking hotelier Wang (Kim Wun-ju) and the combover mastercriminal Sasaki (Bae Su-cheon) is a matter of taste. When it comes to martial arts B-movies like Lee Doo-yong's Manchurian Tiger, you can either giggle or groan at the grotesque fights. In this instance, I'd suggest the latter. For these Japanese and Chinese villains are about to learn their imported brutality is no match for the Taekwondo mastery of Mr. Lee (Han Yong-cheol).

I've seen Han before — specifically a memorable performance in the more entertaining The Korean Connection a.k.a. Returned Single-Legged Man. And while he's no Dragon Lee in terms of charisma, Han does have his own particular appeal. Lithe and limber, he kicks with elegance and tosses his hair like a true teen idol. He also radiates innocence despite his character's debauchery. So while he may be able to triumph over a sea of challengers, he also comes across as insouciant more than dangerous. His ability to cause a sales boom for the casket-maker (Choe Jae-ho) has little meaning for him. Same for the one woman (Woo Yeon-jeong) who throws herself in his path only to get disciplined with a snap. ("Chastity is a woman's life.") I'm not implying his tan leather vest signifies anything significant. If only it did, I'd happily serve a matchmaker on his behalf. For payment, he can give me one of those smuggled bars of gold.

Alienoid: Star Wars for Warlocks

Just like there are good humans and bad humans, there are good aliens and bad aliens. And good sorcerers and bad sorcerers too. In other words, the eternal, universal battle between Good and Evil plays out on multiple, mindbending levels throughout blockbuster auteur Choi Dong-hoon's deliriously fun Alienoid. What else can you expect when humans possessed by imprisoned aliens and aliens masquerading as everyday humans find themselves in conflict with each other, the law, and medieval merchant magicians who are also masters of mixed martial arts. That the film is able to bounce effortlessly back and forth in time — while throwing a good-cop/bad-cop twist into the mix — is another truly remarkable aspect of this irresistible sci-fi fantasy.

I'd also like to say that when a film runs well over two hours, I sometimes break it into parts, like two acts over two days or even a series of webisodes that'll last a week. But with Alienoid, I watched from start to finish as the interplanetary guard (Kim Woo-bin) and his sidekick "program" Thunder (Kim Dae-myung) handled everything from childcare (Choi Yu-ri) to spaceship dogfights to bounty hunting a rogue rebel in the present; and as a bumbling wizard (Ryu Jun-yeol) and his humanoid cats (Shin Jeong-geun, Lee Si-hoon) collaborated with a gun-toting heroine (Kim Tae-ri) and an odd couple of occultists (Yum Jung-ah, Jo Woo-jin) to combat the same dastardly extraterrestrials centuries ago.

Now about that ending...

Kill Boksoon: Killer Queen

Murder is big business in Byun Sung-hyun's slyly satirical action epic Kill Boksoon. As the killer CEO Cha Min-kyu (Sol Kyung-gu) succinctly explains, the sloppy work and loose morals of amateurs have caused this line of work to be disrespected. So he's taken it upon himself to implement a new set of rules in order to restore some honor to the profession. Herewith...

1. Do not kill minors.
2. Only do jobs assigned by your company.
3. Always accept an assignment.

But the truth is, there were rules in the old days too:

If you send a bloody knife to a rival, you are inviting that person to a duel to the death.

That's right! Assassins have always had a Code of Conduct. But rules change with the times. As do players. A leader in the field currently is Boksoon (Jeon Do-yeon), a top-tier terminator who has worked her way up that deadly corporate ladder, one offing at a time. She's got her idolizers professionally (Koo Kyo-hwan) and in-training (Lee Yeon) — the latter under a company schoolmistress (Esom) who immediately feels like a rival. But as our heroine points out, "Killing people is easy when compared to raising a kid" (Kim Si-ah). Does being a scythe-for-hire inherently make her an unfit mother? To quote another character: "Making good money is the best qualification"... for that. Yet nothing complicates shady business practices than nosy cops. And love. I welcome such complications!

I also want to add that action pics attain a whole other level when you have a top-notch actor in the lead role: Think Gena Rowlands in Gloria and Michelle Yeoh in Everything Everywhere All At Once. And Jeon Do-yeon in this movie, too.

Love & Leashes: Learning & Lusting

I've avoided Love & Leashes for a year because I assumed it wasa trashy Korean-style take on 50 Shades of Grey. But whereas the latter is a self-described erotic romance, the K-counterpoint is a rom-com that vacillates between after-school special and workplace satire. And so, the heroine (Seohyun) isn't merely an office worker being initiated into the fine art of BDSM by an junior exec (Lee Joon-Young), she's also a woman who should've had his job and is likely working out some inner frustrations via the cords and whips and leashes. So can a courtship be pure kink? And I'll be honest: There is something romantic in seeing a man who's that vulnerable and a woman who's in control. But as a YouTube tutorial pretty quickly points out: "It's hard to engage in S&M or Dom/Sub relationships within a romantic context since lovers are ideally equally partners." (Major paraphrase!) An online forum teaches her everything else she needs to know.

Once these two have signed a written (!) contract, the training begins — she's exploring dog play at semi-respectable hotel; pressing the stilettoes of her fancy red heels into his back; and dripping hot wax on his body while he's ballgagged. Will love emerge? Well, in real life, I've known two women who fell into long-term, currently ongoing relationships that started with role-playing so why the hell not. That Park Hyeon-jin's Love & Leashes also confronts the rampant sexism in office culture and the violent misogyny that undermines kink practices of veterans like the lead's best friend (Lee El) results in a surprising film that's shockingly good.