kav2001c

Its one of those oddball hits you don't expect when you first pop it into the player. Starring EEG Canto-pop stars Charlene Choi and Isabelle Leung you'd expect this film to be a stinker; and you'd be very wrong. Very well done atmospheric suspense film about a girl who has apparently been dumped by her boyfriend for no reason. She broods on this for a long time (its implied early on she has mental issues, she even goes so far as to decide he must have died), until she finds a new guy who looks a lot like him. She keeps on mixing up the two men, so one night she reads her diary and discovers...

Id strongly suggest you just watch this film first Reading too much about it beforehand will spoil it

This film is commonly referred to as the Korean American Pie But it rips off a lot more movies than just that and it is interesting how they are all tied together The other thing that strikes me is how this film is hyped as a raunchy teen sex comedy when its almost the directors intent to get teens to watch it (via gross outs and ample nudity) and then does the traditional Asian cinema swerve into a much more serious (and darker) matter (where the title of this film is explained)

Ha Ji Won is great (again) and pretty much steals the show The secondary characters are good (but often don't get as much attention as they deserve... a side effect of trying to run too many characters/plot lines)

The only negative I will say about this film is it looks kinda amateurish (but I think it was intended that way)

First off, this is a very artistic film (any movie you watch that the credits are inter-spaced over the first 33 *minutes* you know is going to be different and experimental) and as great as the film is, its a human interest story and therefore it does progress slowly

Kenji is a Japanese man living in Thailand Everything is his life is absolutely perfect down to the most minute details He has a job as a librarian and spends the rest of his time reading (in particular a Japanese child's fable, which is the basis for the English title of the movie) He is not happy and feels his life is utterly pointless. He is irritated by all the noise around him (everything from TV to phone to other people) and he often contemplates suicide (as to him it is a peaceful sleep where he wont be disturbed. His latest suicide attempt is foiled when his brother shows up (on the run from a Yakuza boss who's daughter he slept with) During a gun fight Kenji flees, and meets Noi

Noi works as an adult entertainer who is planning to leave Thailand for Osaka. She has a boyfriend who has cheated many times on her (including with her own sister) Noi has a fight with her sister over the affair and Nid ends up being killed, which makes Noi feel responsible for

Kenji and Noi find an odd solace in each others time of need (he feels alone and she is scared of being alone) and they go out of Bangkok to the province where Noi lives