Indian Pink: Bloodstains on Your Collar

It's not hard to tell something's up with unscrupulous businessman Dong Seok (Kim Hyun-joong) early on in Indian Pink. He's irritable on the phone with his best friend; he squeezes a glass shard until his hand draws blood. Then in case we haven't figured it out, he unsuccessfully drowns his sorrows in drink. What follows, for the first third at least, is really a one-man show, a monologue (with phone calls) masquerading as a movie, a nightmarish mishmash of regret — nay, remorse — for a tragic action that only the slowest of filmgoers won't figure out. Even the false, fantasized memories that constitute the flashback in the second act are easy to dispel, in part because ex-girlfriend is not particularly believable. Perhaps that's intentional?

Once all the cards are laid on the table, writer-director Kim Seewoo doesn't have that much more to explore. Nefarious business deals still get made; a friend/associate becomes complicit in the crime; suicides are attempted and aborted; bodies must be disposed of; and our villainous protagonist is already on the hunt for a new girlfriend. So why does Kim Seewoo's psychodrama feel more lukewarm than chilling? Despite all the bloodstains on white linen in Indian Pink, this flick doesn't make much of a mark.