The General's Mustache: A Novel Twist

Life is a mystery. Oh wait! I'm getting ahead of myself. Who killed photojournalist Kim Chul-woon (Shin Seong-il) before he could finish writing his parable of a novel? That's the supposed mystery in The General's Mustache, a movie that's not too worried about solving its principal crime. That's because the elusive nature of life keeps distracting our two lead investigators, Detective Park (Kim Seung-ho) and his young partner (Kim Seong-ok), an aspiring ladies' man. So while this procedural pair may grill the dead man's ex-girlfriend Shin-hye (Yoon Jeong-hee) and his landlady and his mother, they're also asking themselves what constitutes a relationship and what justifies a breakup. And when they reflect on the life of the girlfriend's father, about the very nature of faith and religion and friendship. Deep, baby, deep.

It's hard to crack a murder case — or establish the cause of a suicide if that's what's going on — when you keep getting swept up in existential questions or being distracted by the potential legacy of a childhood accident that left a forehead scar. Luckily for us, the philosophizing in The General's Mustache is exactly what makes this movie such a treat. Director Lee Seong-gu's film is bursting with ideas whether he's introducing a nude model or a game of "confession," riddling about a new kite or utilizing alternate visuals like cartoons and splashy paintings to help him tell his whackadoodle story. If you can call it a story. I'd call it poetry.

The Hut: Ferocity, Thy Name Is Woman

Life in the small town of Suri is pretty wretched for the womenfolk at the end of the Chosun dynasty. At least, it is if director Lee Doo-yong's supernatural flick The Hut is to be believed. On the one end, there's rape; on the other, an enforced chastity so maddening that widows are driven to self-flagellate, take hot irons to their flesh, and drive a knife savagely into the nether regions then let the wounds fester. Sex positive, Suri is not. And yet, rather than call for a feminist revolution, all the townspeople are obsessed with that one male heir (Choi Seong-ho) who's been in a coma and may be possessed by a local spirit who's holding a justifiably major grudge.

And so they — ironically — call in a female shaman named (Yu Ji-in) who, in order to perform the necessary exorcism to free the town's heir presumptive, needs to play detective and findout who this infuriated phantom might be. Waving a shaking stick will only take a spirit-purging process so far! So... Is it the late Sam-dol (Won Namkoong), a local halfwit who lived in a ramshackle cabin that once served as a holding place for bodies in transition from this life to the next? Or is it the young woman to whom Sam-dol was pimped out because the family matriarch (Hwang Jung-seun) mistakenly thought her charge was about to die, sexually unfulfilled? Whoever the ghost is has every right to be pissed because they've spent a generation captured in a piece of paper trapped inside a bottle that was sealed inside another airtight vessel and then buried underground.

Madame Freedom: She Done Him Wrong, He Done Her Wrong Too

Han Hyeong-mo's midcentury melodrama Madame Freedom features a daisy chain of backstabbers: Professor Jang (Park Am) has a wandering eye for his goody-goody grammar student (Yang Mi-hie). The misses (Kim Jeong-rim) two-times the professor with two men: her slimy boss (Kim Dong-won) and her scalawag neighbor (Lee Min) who's also an impromptu dance instructor and amateur photographer. She's encouraged in her worst behavior (embezzlement, adultery, child negligence) by her none-too-bright best friend (No Kyeong-hie) who, for her part, is being swept off her feet by a Ponzi scheme charlatan (Ju Seon-tae) with a drawn-on mustache. The betrayals don't end there but you get the point. Fidelity is passé!

Is Han implying that the rise of capitalism coincides with the death of morality? Are Western values cheapening Eastern culture. I don't think so, although the drive to make a buck definitely isn't helping anyone to be a better person — except maybe the nightclub's sensational dancer (Na Bok-hui) who shimmies, bumps, grinds, and mugs deliciously and perhaps for tips. Her routine &$141; backed by a big band with four saxophones — is definitely one of Madame Freedom's high points. Amidst all the partner-swapping, this solo dance feels refreshingly innocent. If everyone's going to cheat, you might as well dance alone!

Mist: The Foggy Town

When a big city pharmaceutical executive (Shin Seong-il) vacations in his sleepy hometown without his wife in tow, memories flood back as he reunites with former school buddies then falls into an affair with a local music teacher (Yoon Jeong-hee). Who's orchestrating this extramarital fling is a matter of opinion. Both seem to be manipulators who are going to end up feeling a bit abusive and used when this brief tryst comes to a close. Indeed, writer-director Kim Soo-yong's refusal to cast one as villain and one as victim is what makes Mist such an intriguing film. This is a movie more about mood and psychic states than action and conflict.

It's also exquisitely shot. Jang Seok-jun's black-and-white cinematography is a marvel to behold, especially the longshots in which we see the protagonist crossing an empty lot or moving in and out of a night fog with his love interest or witnessing a funeral procession passing by on a hilltop. Mist is a film comfortable with art for art's sake, with the idea that a picture can tell a story as well as dialogue. Watching a liquor bottle empty out on the floor thereby ruining a nearby paperback is a quick, concise way to show us someone is tired and drunk; just hallucinated ants on a work document lets us know someone is sick and tired of their job. This confident artfulness really elevates Mist to classic status. I'd watch it again. Won't you watch it once?