Starring: Bang Eun-Jin, Hwang Shin-Hye
Director: Park Chul-Soo
Studio: Planet Entertainment
Rating: 18+
Genre: Horror
About This DVD
This Korean horror movie offers a feminist twist in that it centers on two
female protagonists living next door to each other in a high rise apartment. The
title refers to their respective apartment numbers. The story opens as one of
the women, a compulsive cook, is being questioned about the mysterious
disappearance of her neighbor, the other woman, a traumatized writer suffering
from anorexia nervosa. The two meet when the friendly cook tries to give the
writer some of her newest creation. The writer later throws the food away. Still
a friendship is born and as they converse, the tragic reasons for the writer's
condition come to light. Dark secrets from the cook's past are also revealed. It
is she who offers up the grisly final solution to the writer's guilt and
continual pain.
Song-Hee Kang in 301 wants to introduce herself to her neighbour Yoon-Hee Kim in
302, and so cooks a delicious meal for her. But 302, buried in her paperwork, is
not only even less open than her appartment, but, having taken 301's present,
brings it straight back up again. Unsuspecting 301 happily prepares the most
lavish meals for her neighbour, who cannot bring herself to smell or look at
them, let alone eat them. When 301 discovers her food among 302's refuse, she is
appalled, and forces 302 to eat it. Her lack of success gives rise to a feeling
of hopelessness, until she discovers why 302 is unable to take any food. 302
gradually disappears, getting thinner and thinner. There seems to be only one
more thing left to do...
Rarely has such a film succeeded in gripping its audience with such subtle
means. When 302 finally unbends, and we discover her story, we wish 301 had not
been so persistent. Now that we know the facts, we know that a solution is not
going to be easy. Certainly, the drip, a course of therapy or a miraculous
quick-cure through some nicely thought-out event would be possible. But (male)
feminist Chul-Soo Park is no average director, and does not let his films get
round the issue, as many others unthinkingly do (such as Antonia Bird with her
Berlinale film, Priest, the year before in 1995). Consistantly, if horrifically,
the Korean leads his film to its end, and for all who care to look beyond the
superficial, one of the greatest romantics in film history reveals herself.
| Audio Format: | DD 5.1 Surround |
| Video Format: | Standard 1.33:1 |
| Languages: | Korean |
| Subtitles: | English |
| Country Made: | Korea |
| Region Code: | All |
| Year Made: | 1996 |
| Running Time: | 98 |
| Special Features: | - |
| Availability: | Unavailable. |
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