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.