(301,) (302) Movie Review

In a modern high-rise in Seoul, two women living across the hall from each other—each identified only by her apartment number—discover that they have something in common: a fascination with food. Fascination is not a one-size-fits-all word, however, especially in this case of the obsessive, endlessly cooking, slightly deranged gourmet chef in 301 (Eun-Jin Pang) who doesn't understand why all the food she makes for the woman in 302 (Sin-Hye Hwang) vanishes so quickly, or why her reclusive neighbor is so thin. By the time she finds out, 301, 302 has turned its attention to sexual sublimation, eating disorders, and cannibalism, with all the energy and—ahem—relish of an episode of Essence of Emeril as directed by Freddy Krueger. Director Chul-Soo Park's urban horror fable is pretty gruesome and sometimes pretty funny, but while it seems to be getting at real issues about hunger, lust, revulsion, and guilt, you may be heading for the bathroom long before you find out what they are. Eat first.

NEXT STOP … Repulsion, They Came from Within, The Grande Bouffe

1994 99m/C Eun-Jin Bang, Sin-Hye Hwang, Chu-Ryun Kim; D: Chul-Soo Park; W: Suh-Goon Lee. VHS EVE