The Humanist

A spoiled teen and his mentally unbalanced friends get involved in a kidnapping that goes very wrong. A mildly amusing film that uses sick humor to good effect. Starts off at a much faster pace than it ends. Sort of a Korean version of FARGO. Worth a look for fans of SHALLOW GRAVE also.

1st watched 9/8/2002 - 6 out of 10(Dir:Mu-yeong Lee); Strange mix of drama, thriller and comedy in this `outrageously' complex film about the lives of three friends who grow up forming a small gang with each member having obvious roles starting from a very early age. This is a disturbing film in the sense that it is so extreme in it's use of violence, profanity, and sex and yet it is definetly meant to be a comedy(at times). The movie blossoms from the leader of the threesome being interrogated by police and the movie basically unfolds based on his testimony. The major plotline(explained in synopsis of film-attempted kidnapping of the father of the leader) doesn't actually begin till about the last 45 minutes of the movie, which leads to an ending that twists and turns beyond belief. My recommendation for this film is based on the fact that I'd like to view it again to understand more of the underlying purpose of the direction which seems to be displaying a consistent lack of humanity despite titleing the film the `Humanist.'