Hunt: Sadistic Spy Games

I miss the days when gunshots were few and far between in South Korean action pics. I also have a hard time with movies that involve interogations using torture because the violence seems so pointless since people often confess to whatever the accusation is when under extreme physical duress. Which brings me to Hunt, the weapon-heavy, gratuitously battering directorial debut of Squid Games actor Lee Jung-jae. In this spy pic about an attempted presidential assassination, the bullets fly with some regularity but the more effective conflicts are strictly mano a mano...like when two opposing police-like factions meet in a hospital hallway and one of the leaders shouts out "Push through!" Mob meet mob.

As for the two men helming these two rival groups, one heads the foreign arm of the South Korean Agency for National Security Planning; the other, the national branch. Both men are deeply corrupt. (Is it just me or would lead actors Lee Jung-jae and Jung Woo-sung make an sensational pairing for a Korean version of Sam Shepard's True West?) That one of them is fighting for peaceful reconciliation between the two Koreas is ludicrous to the extreme. Hat tips to Jeon Hye-jin as a persistent third-in-command, Jeong Man-sik as an eventually-comatose agent, and Hwang Jung-min as a North Korean defector with sass because even overlong movies that don't quite work can come with fine performances.

12.12: The Day: The Shock of History

Admittedly my knowledge of Korean history is limited. I've gained some awareness after over a decade of watching Korean movies and reading a handful of books about Korean-American history but I can still be surprised by seeing political events unfold, well-known to anyone from South Korea. In this case, while I was aware of the military coup that followed the Korean president's assassination in 1979, I did not know any details about the power struggles that preceded the subsequent dictatorship. And so, my cursory knowledge was supplanted by Hollywood happy-ending conditing.

Because of this, while watching Kim Sung Soo's informative feature 12.12: The Day, I was foolishly, even stupidly, expecting that the forces of good — as represented by two-star general Lee Tae-shin (Jung Woo-sung) — would triumph over the forces of evil — embodied by his nemesis, the power-hungry, eventual president Chun Doo-gwang (Hwang Jung-min). Like here in the United States, the integrity of a few individuals, which includes Chief of Staff Jeong Sang-ho (Lee Sung-min), is much too easily, even decisively counterbalanced by the sliminess of a single man like National Defense Minister Oh Guk Sang (Kim Eui-sung). That the Korean people were eventually able to restore their government to something closer to a true democracy is kind of amazing. In that sense, 12.12: The Day does give one a glimmer of hope. In the streets but not on the telephone.

Man in Love: Preposterous and Delicious

For me, the signature moment in Man in Love — about a smitten debt collector (Hwang Jung-min) who's in hot pursuit of a financially compromised mark (Han Hye-jin) — occurs rather late in Han Dong-wook's movie. Their coerced, extended courtship culminates in a bizarrely poignant expression of devotion: a fart released while comatose. As ridiculous as this sounds, I cried when this moment happened because the act signified a tenderness capable of overcoming all. You might think that doesn't make sense and you might be right. But for some reason, the illogic of this kooky crime pic gets under your skin when you least expect it.

Is our reverence for love so heartfelt that we'd willingly accept the most absurd plot points as long as boy meets girl leads to boy marries girl? For one night, mine apparently was! I was willing to abide pop-up funeral processions, busdrivers with active dementia (Nam Il-woo), a terminal cancer revealed in flashback, and a do-gooder police detective (Nam Moon-cheol) who has a softspot for a violent repeat offender, recently released from the clink. As long as Hwang's puppy-dog eyes are pining for that bank teller, nothing seems far-fetched for me. If movies are supposed to be fantasies made real, then Man in Love is, just like its protagonist's wardrobe, flashy in the best way possible.

Mission: Cross: A Bulletproof Husband and Wife

Don't give up on Lee Myung Hoon's Mission: Cross too soon. For what first seems like an irritating thriller about an invicible cop (Yum Jung-ah) whose sudden conflicts with her subservient husband (Hwang Jung-min) could be solved pretty quickly if they'd simply have a honest sit-down talk ends up being a playful action pic celebrating the virtues of commitment in marriage. I'm trying to remember the exact point in which the movie went from kinda bad to more-than-pretty good. Was it when the real identity — and the upscaled wardrobe — of the villian (Jeon Hye-jin) is revealed? Or when the heroine inadvertantly gets ahold of the USB drive at the secret hideout? Or when husband and wife reaffirm their marital vows to each other with gunware? Whenever it happens, that change suddenly transforms Mission: Cross into a highly improbable and entertaining romcom.

Lee's movie also has a veiled homoerotic subplot involving two of the lady cop's subordinates. Alas, the script only hints at this narrative via some overly defensive comments one officer (Jeong Man-sik) make about his sexuality, followed by a car with floral-crocheted seatbelt-covers that are likely the work of his squad colleague/lover (Cha Rae-hyung). But the movie only alludes. Too bad! You also get the feeling that another secondary story involving the demented torturer (Kim Byeong-ok) and his heavily tatted assistant (Kim Kyu-baek) somehow ended up on the cutting-room floor. What's left for the projector room is enough. Microwave that popcorn. Showtime has arrived.

Asura: The City of Madness: Politics as Usual

Watching this movie, as I did, the day after Trump got a bloody ear at a rally, Asura: The City of Madness lent credence to conspiracy theories that our former president staged his own assassination attempt, dead bystander notwithstanding. For somewhere early on in Kim Sung-su's political thriller, an equally corrupt, avaricious mayor redirects the attention of the media by having his head clandestinely sliced by a box cutter to salvage his rah-rah conference of self-promotion. That self-directed mutilation is especially creepy because Mayor Park Sung-Bae (Hwang Jung-min) — like DJT — emerges bloodied and defiant, using the injury as a way to paint himself as a martyr. Like Trump, too, he's surrounded by thugs with fear-based loyalty and questionable sense. The only saving (dis)grace for Park is that the justice department — represented by Special Prosecutor Kim Cha-in (Kwak Do-won), Chief Prosecutor Oh (Choi Byung-mo) and a hunky detective (Jeong Man-sik) — are only ever-so-slightly less slimy.

Stuck between the two feuding parties is Han Do-Kyung (Jung Woo-sung), a dirty cop willing to turn traitor on his boss if it means making money for his wife's costly medical treatments. The compromised morals of his cheery BFF Sunmo (Ju Ji-hoon) have more to do with career opportunities with a long game in mind. Eventually, both characters go off the deep end: one on his way up; one, his way down. Neither have luck on their side or as someone says at one point they're probably "trying to be clever with an inadequate brain." Recurring thought: Stay out of behind-closed-doors-with-a-knife politics.

The Battleship Island: POW Power

Internment camps are a nightmare. In The Battleship Island, the wartime hellscape is a prison island doubling as a mining facility at which prisoners are forced to dig for coal under inhumane conditions. The best way to escape such a dire fate is to know how to play a musical instrument: So clarinetist band-leader Lee Gang-ok (Hwang Jung-min) and his prepubescent, singing-dancing daughter So-hee (Kim Su-an) have a glimmer of hope, as they entertain the enemy with a small jazz band.

Playing pop songs for your enslavers may sound like a form of torture but working underground and breathing coal dust doesn't sound any better. And there are prepubescent kids — with pickaxes and chizels — in the subterranean realm as well. Thug-turned-good-guy Choi Chil-sung (So Ji-seob) may have fought his way into a line boss job for the betterment of his countrymen but there's only so much he can do. And who needs his help more? Elder Yoon Kyung-ho (Lee Kyung-young) or comfort woman Mallyon (Lee Jung-hyun)?

Then again, maybe since this is a movie, all of these stories are going to come together for a great escape. So how's that going to happen when you're stuck on an island with no mainland in swimming distance? Teletype machines, copied keys, pornographic distractions, traded cigarettes, and sheer fortitude, that's how! Considering how often it rains and how often there are explosions on this prison-island, it's going to be tough even if things go smoothly. Then again, survival might be enough.

Hostage: Missing Celebrity: Shooting Star

Hostage: Missing Celebrity is asking us to believe a buttload of improbabilities. Like that kidnapped movie star Hwang Jung-min (played by Hwang Jung-min) is going to give his murderous abductor (Kim Jae-bum) access to his apartment but not the pin for his bank account. Or that a cop who gets hit by a cab is the one who's going to drive the police car as opposed to his uninjured partner (Baek Joo-hee). Or that the gang-leading villain would think a different hair part — without so much as a hat — would be enough of a disguise to go back out in public after an APB. Or that a crazy old man who lives in the woods would have the cell phone number of the Chief of Police. But let's say a viewer is willing to accept any and all unlikelihoods. How does writer-director Pil Gam-sung's 2021 thriller fare?

Well the kidnapped actor is definitely a narcissist with entitlement issues, the kind of guy who starts talking about how many times he had to audition while chained to a post with a young woman (Lee Yoo-mi) who's face is bruised, battered, and bloody. As for the rest of the cast, this movie has too many cops, too many crooks, and too many reporters with too few lines. Bodies are piling up at the end. But some will also rise again. You never know who's actually dead in this movie as people survive hand grenades and homemade bombs. The determining showdown? A mudfight in the rain! The big question: Who's gonna get the final chokehold? (And will the loser rise again?)

Deliver Us From Evil: Essential Neo-Noir

What's needed to make a movie a film noir? An unsavory underworld? An avenging antihero? A dominoed sequence of dastardly crimes? Well, yes, all those things can come into play and more. But a noir also isn't a noir without some seriously considered cinematography enhanced by the moodiest of lighting. For the great Fritz Lang, the noir of the '40s/'50s was distinguished by arty camera angles and strategically-cast shadows; for writer-director Hong Wan-chon, the amoral action gets a richer palette if not the crackling dialogue. No longer black-and-white, his update on noir abounds with fireside yellows, silvery blues, and scarily splashy reds. (Literally, "splashy" since the blood does splatter.) Set in the asphalt jungle (where else?), Deliver Us From Evil has neo-noir's ravishing visuals and vigilante vibe down pat.

Hong's sinister screenplay is better than basic, too. Much better. A world-weary assassin (Hwang Jung-min) — is there any other kind? — heads to Bangkok to right wrongs out of the past, after his never-quite-forgotten ex-girlfriend (Choi He-seo) suddenly resurfaces on his radar only to vanish once again. Naturally, the villainy only spirals out from there. Beyond a reasonable doubt, Hong next-levels the reliable black-market-organ trope (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, The Man From Nowhere, Traffickers). Equally potent is the wardrobe of the retaliating nemesis (Lee Jung-jae) who shows up at one point in a zebra-print shirt paired with aviator glasses. Killer, for sure. The same can be said for the acting of Park Jeong Min whose turn as a trans nightclub performer who serves as the "good" assassin's most-reliable sidekick adds just the right amount of sparkle to a world dominated by doom and gloom.

Some may say that Deliver Us From Evil has too many moments that go too far: How could a layperson know how to perform surgery on themselves? What allows an individual to outmaneuvre a full police SWAT team without even spraining an arm? Why would a bloodbath be followed by a snifter of booze? Those looking for logic are likely to end up as shell-shocked as the movie's kidnapped little girl (Park So-yi). As one character says, "The reason doesn't matter anymore." But Hong's film sure does, if you're thirsting for a thriller.

Moby Dick: Reporters Make Terrific Heroes

The pursuit of truth is laudable. That might not sound profound but when you consider how many people hide behind lies (white and otherwise), you realize precisely how exceptional such an objective can be. Which is why movies about indefatigable reporters committed to bucking the system and getting the facts can be so gosh-darn-tootin' exhilarating. Movies like Park In-je's Moby Dick. This 2011 thriller about three resourceful newspaper journalists — a veteran (Hwang Jung-min), a recent hire (Kim Sang-ho), and an up-and-comer (Kim Min-hee) — had me on the edge of my seat as the film's central trio got embroiled in its search for the members of the shadow government that killed off people in the name of profit.

As films based on conspiracy theories go, Moby Dick isn't breaking new ground. And with Kim Kyeong-yeong phoning in a typical baddie performance, the film's main threat can feel like a cliche. But the camaraderie of the central newshounds is real; the excitement they generate by getting closer to cracking the case will keep you up past your bedtime. Who cares that what they reveal feels implausible? Or that their main informant (Jin Goo) i a pretty-faced zombie. Okay, I cared a little. Just not enough to spoil the movie though.

Private Eye: Snoop Gets Major Scoop

Jang Kwang-su (Ryu Deok-hwan) is a gifted medical student who chances upon a dead body that he uses to further his skill set as a surgeon. Hong Jin-ho (Hwang Jung-min) makes his living by taking scandalous photos of women having affairs then getting those pics published in the local paper, no doubt with salacious copy. So when Jang realizes that his practice corpse is the son of a political dignitary, he naturally enlists Hong to track down the murderer. Why shouldn't a photojournalist who stalks down unfaithful spouses be able to track down a serial killer? Okay, I'll admit that's a bit of a jump but if you're willing to take it, Park Dae-min's Private Eye is highly entertaining.

In supporting roles, neither Oh Dal-su nor Yun Je-mun may be giving the performance of a lifetime as a shady military officer and an even shadier circus performer but even at 70 percent capacity, they keep the action moving. Vastly more effective is Uhm Ji-won who plays an inventor who aspires to be the greatest scientist in Korean history and in most movies would also be doubling as a love interest but here is improbably but delightfully not. She may have longings for Hong but she's infinitely more committed to astronomy and James Bond-worthy gadgetry than she is to snagging her man. Anyway, she's smart to set her sights elsewhere since so many of this movie's men aren't interested in women at all. I won't add any spoilers now but I will say that what they desire instead may not be what you first suspect.

P.S. If you're wondering why the younger trapezist looks familiar, that's because actress Kim Hyang-gi grew up to star in the Along with the Gods franchise.

Veteran: A Movie for the Resistance Movement

You tend to think of action movies as exaggerating dramatic conflicts as a way to heighten entertainment value but when you consider the level of corruption currently on display by today's American President and the sycophantic, morally bankrupt Republican party in both houses of Congress, it seems almost impossible to one-up the institutionalized rapacity, mendacity, racism, and sexism broadcast nightly on the network news. In other words, the grifter's world portrayed in Ryoo Seung-wan's Veteran comes across at this moment in history as unbelievably quaint. Viewed the year it came out — two years ago in 2015 — I'm guessing, I would've observed the bloodthirsty, sadistic son (Yoo Ah-in) of an unscrupulous businessman (Song Young-chang) who more or less gets away with murder thanks to ties to high ranking officials in the police department and judicial system as not so much realistic as illustrative. Now I know better.

I've no doubt that our elected officials, military personnel, government appointees, and business boardrooms are riddled with mercenary, amoral, self-serving racists from the top on down. I'm not saying everyone is a bad apple; I'm saying the rot is ubiquitous. Which is why good cops like Do-cheol (Hwang Jung-min), his social-worker wife (Jin Kyung), and his immediate supervisor (Oh Dal-su) are so important to see in the movies. I also think the movie is pretty accurate in showing that the only way people change is when their personal circle is affected. The police chief (Chun Ho-jin) is probably taking pay-outs or at the very least caving under pressure from above but once a rookie detective (Kim Shi-hoo) gets stabbed, his loyalty to his men comes to the fore. I guess some people need to feel threatened to take action. Well, feel threatened then. And then resist, resist, resist.

Footnote: Don't miss Ma Dong-seok's all-too-brief cameo when he steps out of a crowd during the final fight between the movie's hero and villain.

The Wailing: Taking Its Time to Meet the Devil

The Wailing is that type of horror movie that takes its own sweet time building its world and then doesn't back down from its supernatural elements by trying to write them off as psychological aberrations. No. Ghosts, shamans, satan, and zombies are all very much real in Na Hong-jin's small-town world. And what starts off as a series of disturbing deaths — are they murders, suicides, fatal-disease-caused-by-a-mushroom victims, who can say? — are soon revealed to be part of a larger battle between good and evil. Or, to be honest, us and evil, after acknowledging that we're actually not so good. When the teams are defined that way, evil feels like it has an unfair advantage. But isn't that what we've suspected all along? God help us indeed!

And poor, unlucky Jong-goo (an excellent Kwak Do-won) definitely needs some help! Because he's just a local cop, a cheating husband, a doting father, and a scaredy cat. He's not ready to take on the devil when the dark underlord decides to take possession of the body of his daughter (Kim Hwan-hee)? If that's even what's going on! Definitely, the Japanese guy (Jun Kunimura) is creepy. As is that young woman (Chun Woo-hee) in white who keeps showing up and acting all strange. Yet does it go to follow that they're actually agents of Hell? Should he go along with his mother-in-law (Her Jin) and have an exorcism performed? Even if it drives the little girl crazy? Why isn't that skinny priest who is the cousin (Kim Do-yoon-I) of his partner more help? Can the shaman (a superb Hwang Jung-min) be trusted? I completely understand why he'd round up his friends to attack the enemy but next time, bring something more lethal than gardening tools!

This is only the third feature film by the director Na but man, what a great track record he's got. The other two are The Chaser and The Yellow Sea, both of which made my best of lists at the end of the years I saw them. This one is definitely going to be a contender for 2017, even if we are only one week in.

New World: May the Best Buffoon Win

I know I've seen actor Hwang Jeong-min before. He plays a deadpan detective in The Unjust, a snooping insurance agent in Black House, and a doomed lover in You Are My Sunshine. He's always been good but I was totally unprepared for just how great he is in writer-director Park Hoon-jung's New World. Here, playing Jeong Cheong, one of four gangsters vying to be the next Godfather of Korea's largest crime syndicate, he gives a performance that's epic in scale. What's even more impressive is how sneakily he builds that performance, starting off as a stereotype -- an uneducated thug who favors knock-off designer wear and sports a Jheri curl -- and ending up the movie's most complex character. So don't dismiss him as comic relief. Soon enough, his character will develop an edge. Then alongside his peacock posturing, you'll discover a sadistic streak that suggests, though dimwitted, he's dangerous, too. But wait! Even that evaluation must get tossed aside as you come to realize that his buffoonery is a pose, that he's quite savvy to the political web in which he's ensnared. If he's not the spider, then the spider better beware.

But New World, sad to say, isn't Jeong Cheong's story. It's the story of one of the underworld's other rising stars, Lee Ja-sung (Lee Jung-jae) -- an undercover cop who's being asked to stay incognito for the rest of his life as a way to the police force informed until the end of time. It seems a bit much to ask but at least Section Chief Kang, the one asking him to act as "mole" forever, is played by Choi Min-sik who can make any plot device, no matter how preposterous, seem perfectly believable. When Kang outwits the other aspiring crime lord Jung-gu (Park Seong-woon), you believe it. When he quits smoking as a way to honor an unlucky direct report (Song Ji-hyo), you kind of believe that too. You can almost believe his final encounter with one of the movie's murderous hobos. Almost but not quite.

The Unjust: Apparently, Every Side of the Law Is the Backside

A rapist-murderer is on the loose in Seoul, South Korea. But that's of little concern to anyone in The Unjust, a wobbly crime pic in which cops frame mentally deficient suspects, real estate moguls back stab each other to death, and public prosecutors wear their bribes as badges of honor while the psychopath molests and kills another young girl in the city. Apparently, law officials are too obsessed with getting promotions or a new set of golf clubs to be bothered worrying about the sex criminal headlining the nightly news.

It's as if writer Park Hoon-jung (I Saw the Devil) and director Ryu Seung-wan (Crying Fist) are suggesting that a sociopath is nothing compared to the unsavory types employed by the legal system. Prosecutor Joo-yang (Ryu Seung-beom) is more amoral as he extorts public figures and bullies co-workers with his shit-eating grin; big businessman Jang (Yu Hae-jin) is more corrupt as he wheels and deals for supremacy in real estate, with an even shittier grimace; and detective Choi (Hwang Jeong-min) is more desperate as he vies for a supervisor position, his face neither grinning nor grimacing but staring deadpan at the world as if life were a poker game.

The only really pitiable character is convicted child-molester/prime-suspect Lee Dong-seok (Woo Dong-gi), with his missing half-finger. And since he's a child molester, the pity only goes so far. Actually, the one character to elicit true sympathy is Lee's wife. Played by actress Lee Mi-do with startling realism, this mentally incapacitated woman appears to have walked out of a documentary into a so-so thriller. Lost and bewildered with a child by her side, she gapes at terrors and complications she can neither overcome nor understand. I wish The Unjust had justified her look of woe.

Blades of Blood: The Look of Medieval History

What I like best about Korean epics set in the middle ages are the men's hats: wide-brimmed stovepipes made of black mesh that diffuses the shadow cast on the face; overturned, blue or earthen-colored bowls embellished with topknots and attached to the head with a strip of fabric secured in the back like a bandana; towering royal cones that look collapsible and slyly suggest the instability of any and every empire... Having been raised on the knit caps and baseball visors, the earmuffs and do rags of the late 20th century, these antiquated, grandly executed headpieces speak mysteriously, intriguingly of hidden meanings that have nothing to do with designer labels and sports franchises. Back then a hat had meaning! It defined your class, your rank, your identity in a way that today's tiaras and aviator hats do not. Talk about ridiculously aspirational. Well, Blades of Blood has hats aplenty. And aspirations too. And for that I thank director Lee Jun-ik (since I don't know the name of the costume designer). With this historic drama documenting eternal futility more than temporal reign, he's parading out a veritable fashion show of medieval formal- and sports- wear between and during the sword fights.

But clothes alone do not make a movie any more than they do a man. And at the center of Blades of Blood are actually two shabbily attired men: One, a blind samurai wearing a patched-up version of the stovepipe mentioned above; the other, his bare-headed apprentice with a robe as bland as a navy sportscoat. They're both hell-bent on revenging the man who killed Pil-joo (Lee Hae-yeong) -- friend of the former, father of the latter. And they have to trek by hundreds of people infinitely better attired to do so. It's a classic tale with the two men acting out a Star Wars-like mentorship as the elder -- a blind fool named Hwang (Hwang Jeong-min) -- teaches the younger -- a hot-tempered bastard named Gyeon-ja (Baek Seong-hyeon) -- the finer points of swordplay and hand-to-hand combat with plenty of head clobberings as reprimand. If the Foley soundtrack is to be believed, those hits to the head sure hurt! And it's not the only form of pain suffered throughout Blades of Blood. (it may be the only pains that continuously cause a laugh though.) For serious injury early on, Gyeon-ja gets stabbed right through the abdomen by his nemesis Lee Mong-hak (Cha Seung-won) and is given up as dead (as if that's the way movies ever worked). That hurt! And many of Lee's cohorts end up seeing the end of Lee's sword come out their other side, without coming back to life. As to other aches, there's Baek-ji (Han Ji-hye), lover to both Mong-hak and Gyeon-ja. That's gotta hurt for both men. How the love triangle happens is one of life's great coincidences. How it resolves itself is one of the film's greatest achievements. The whole thing's not quite as magical as Lee's masterpiece The King and the Clown but it's still an entertaining romp in the past. I say, hats off to them all!

Five Senses of Eros: Speak No Hot Sex, See No Hot Sex, Hear No Hot Sex

Memorable short films? I don't know many. Memorable short erotic films? I don't know any. The enervating anthology Five Senses of Eros didn't change that fact either, especially since there's actually not an arousingly erotic short in the bunch. The opener, Byun Hyuk's "His Concern," is a grating voiceover accompanied by images charting the first stage of a romance resulting from a chance encounter at a train station. (She's way too good for him even if he is played by matinee idol Jang Hyuk.) Number two -- Hur Jin-ho's "I'm Here" -- isn't much better: a twee 20 minutes of a husband (Kim Kang-woo) and wife (Cha Su-yeon) playing hide-and-seek even after she ends up dying of something or other. (This woman likes to spoon even when she's gone!)

On to the third mini movie "33rd Man" which gets more pornographic by kicking off with a naked humping couple undone once the ghost (Kim Gyu-ri) appears. She's not really a spook, mind you, she's simply an actress on a shoot with a frustrated director (Kim Su-ro) and an experienced leading lady (Bae Chong-ok) who oddly enough happens to be a bisexual vampiress. By film four, things get weirder and dykier. With Min Kyu-dong's "The End and the Beginning," now we've got a bitter, horny widow (Eom Jeong-hwa) who decides to shack up with the magician-girlfriend (Kim Hyo-jin) who her hunky husband (Hwang Jeong-min) was banging when he got killed in a car accident. (Just wait until she finds those S&M videotapes.)

Last and least erotic if most interesting is Oh Ki-hwan's "Believe in the Moment," a fragmentary little flick about six incredibly edible young things who confusedly swap partners as they struggle to find out the meaning of intimacy. Lots of kissing! No nudity! I've actually seen previous films by many of the writer-directors featured herein but I don't feel that any of them qualify as an auteur just yet. This project probably appealed to them as something to do before they got to work on a more serious project. Maybe they're auditioning actors. Maybe they're testing out cinematographers. Maybe they're trying to flesh out an idea about carnal desire or the eros-thanatos connection or a dream they once had but don't remember too clearly anymore. Maybe that's it. But only maybe.

Black House: A Contract With the Devil

Tonight, I'll probably have nightmares. That's what happens when you watch a stomach-turning thriller like Shin Terra's Black House over a bowl of Raisin Bran in the morning. You may think you have a whole day ahead of you to forget about the stabbings and the dismemberments, but this freaky little film about a female psychopath (Yu Seon) and the busybody insurance agent (Hwang Jeong-min) who foolishly gets between her and her money is, in a nutshell, unforgettable. In many ways, Black House is a Korean variation on Silence of the Lambs, a suspense-horror hybrid in which a serial killer is being pursued by someone who's got a few issues of his/her own. The fact that here "the good guy" is a bespectacled, chapped-lipped claims processor instead of an inexperienced-but-attractive FBI Agent is actually all to the good of the movie because it makes the hero a little less sympathetic and the conflict a lot more problematic. He may be working for justice, but he's also a tool of the machine. She may be incapable of feeling remorse, but she's also hardly living the high life and she's stuck with a limp. As the killer kook, Yu turns in one of those bone-chilling performances in which the eyes become the gateway to no soul. She's so riveting, you almost want her to win or at least luck out with parole.

You Are My Sunshine: He's Not So Happy When Skies Are Gray

Don't get me wrong. I'd love it if every prostitute met the man of her dreams and left the biz for a better life. But the "lovable whore" -- not to mention the "gentleman john" -- is a fantasy that rattles me. Can there really be a happily ever after for a hooker and her customer? I can't help but predict disaster. From the looks of You Are My Sunshine, director-writer Park Jin-pyo basically agress. Here, the woman-in-question is sweet, young cynic Eun-ha (Jeon Do-yeon) who wears H&M dresses and delivers coffee (with blow jobs) when she isn't being courted by country bumpkin Seok-joong (Hwang Jeong-min). Eventually, the two pair up for wedded bliss only to find their love knot untangled by the return of her other husband and a frightful diagnosis of AIDS. Before you know it, Eun-ha is back to turning tricks and Seok-joong is in a tailspin that even his well-meaning mother (Na Mun-hee) can't set right. When Eun-ha ends up the Typhoid Mary of HIV, one farming family's tragedy becomes the stuff of tabloid fodder. (There's a great scene in which a photojournalist instructs the grieving Seok-joong to walk away with his shoulders slumped to look sad.) A weepie if there ever was one, You Are My Sunshine nevertheless ends optimistically. These two renew your faith in eternal vows.