301, 302

Eun-jin Pang is a gourmet chef who lives in apartment 301 and Sin-Hye Hwang is an bulimic writer who lives in apartment 302. Hwang disappears and Pang is interviewed by a detective. Pang was the last person who saw Hwang alive, but she says she has no idea where her neighbor is. Flashbacks reveal a different story. This is an entertaining, lurid thriller with a couple of very good performances and some awesome looking food (and some not so awesome looking food). Cheol-su Park's direction is quite good, especially the excellent composition. He recently was struck by a car while crossing the street and passed away. 301/302 was one of the first South Korean films to be distributed in the United States.

This South Korean offbeat thriller won the 1995 Grand Bell award in its native country.Song-Hee lives in room 301 and Yun-hee in room 302 of the New Hope Apartments.After meeting,they realize they have opposing but eerily complementary neuroses:Song-Hee likes to cook,and Yun-hee hates food.And so begins a strange friendship that attracts scrutiny when one of them disappears."301,302" is not as disturbing as it's reputed to be.Even slightly horrifying climax is predictable and not surprising at all.The pace is extremely slow and the film becomes quickly boring.Some viewers may be disgusted by a huge numbers of close-ups of food,but I wasn't offended in the least.Still the director Cheol-su Park draws some interesting parallels between sex and food.Overall,if you are a fan of Asian horror give this one a look.6 out of 10.

A policeman rings at the 301 to inquire about the 302, who disappeared. A young woman opens the door and feeds him with fried chicken, wine, salad...

She appears to be only interested in sex, cooking and eating. Where that is just everything the young woman from the 302 hates.

The movie is the story of these two women. How they met and how they made these choices for their lives. They were apparently not meant to meet, but they have in common their extreme loneliness.

The movie is also about love and loneliness.

The very beginning is brilliant: two little girls present their mother's fridge and that is really enjoyable, really. The colors are beautiful (as often in Asian movies). But all in all, I cannot say I completely liked it. It is a bit long some times and comes with no surprise (at least I guessed the end rather early), although a mystery-thriller. The psychology of 302 is not that clear (or maybe not that interesting, or maybe I am only interested in sex, cooking and eating). And another thing very Asian is the close-ups on people's mouth when they are eating. But there are interesting things, still.

At least, you will leave the theater starving or start a diet right away (I am of the first kind...).

For completeness, I shall add that both actresses are beautiful and eventually get naked.

Psychological Foreign (Korean) Thriller

Stimulating cinematography, foreign artistic humor, unconventional yet identifiable characters, cohesive character development and interaction, slow start.. interesting movie.

Humorously misleading packaging (US Version) DVD case reads something along the lines of, "food, sex, and humor" with an image of lovemaking and Korean food. Yes, these are the core themes of 301, 302 but to label this movie as just that for an unprepared audience.. well that's like serving up a plate of stinky tofu and describing it as "healthy Asian food." I absolutely love it, it's genius.

Very dark and mysterious film that interweaves a relationship between two neighbors, and a present day investigation. The screenplay is pondersome, and yet deliberate, in feeding (pardon the pun) the viewer certain amounts of information at a time. We get to know the characters, and exceptionally so, their quirks. The atmosphere is very dark, and claustrophobic, which adds so much to the film. The memories are haunting. It would be very hard not to talk about this movie after viewing it. Creepy, and at times, rather darkly funny, 301/302 is an offbeat choice very worthy of your consideration. Recommended.