There's something pleasurably voyeuristic about The Distributors, Hong Seok-Ku's crackerjack thriller about a teacher (Park Sung-hoon) whose future plans for marrying rich are sabotaged when he's rufied at a club then filmed nude, barking like a dog for two VIP girls. But you don't feel bad for him. Because he's done the same thing more or less — with his fiance (Kim So-eun), noless — and he's recently given a pass to two students who are pretty much going down the same road. So I, for one, didn't mind seeing his life fall apart. Piece by piece. Plus, he lies so much that, while his motives are plausible, you also know that his character is basically shit. So if he's not the hero, what is this?
Can a movie work if it's the extended comeuppance of a bad guy? Is there anything this shady high school teacher could do that would provide him with redemption? Perhaps. There are two routes available: One would involve him truly owning his misdeeds then making amends; the other would be to show another character who is even more despicable than him, like the guy who videotapes a nerdy male student (Lee Hyun-so) acting like a girl while masturbating then gets that same guy to be his stooge. Lest you think The Distributors is strictly exploitation with its clueless sex-cam workers and remorseless amateur pornographers, let me set you straight. This cautionary tale does a really good job of illustrating how our collective cultural failure to hold people accountable for their actions creates a brutal domino effect as one forgiven bad act begets another.
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