Lies

Rating:
Summary: Strange erotic movie
Review: Lies is a film about a sexual relationship between a final year high school girl and a grown up artist. A Teenager girl wants to loose her virginity to a married grown up artist . Their relationship gets stranger with the artists lust for pain and sado mazo actions. Later girl develops a liking towards this acts and becomes the fountain of life for him. The sex, passion and sado actions are portrayed as real as a responsible camera gets thus coming closer to the soft porn cliches with beating each other with sticks that are collected from the parks by the couple.
It is an interesting movie with the 2 characters lust in Korea a modern but a traditional country where morality and respect is appreciated. Film is not about real love but passion, lust and phantasies, so be warned.
Interesting fact is that film is based on a book which caused writer to end up in jail. But film is all around the world and especially screened in festivals.
It is not an easy film to watch sometimes so you have to make up your mind.

Rating:
Summary: Lies
Review: Lies is the correct title for this movie. It's full of lies, they lied when they said it was good. They lied when they said it was erotic. Don't waste your time with this one. The whole movie consists of beating each other with a stick. Even this is shown in the most non-erotic way possible.

Rating:
Summary: Kinky, voyeuristic, entertaining.
Review: Personally, if an erotic movie lacks sensuality, I'm not really interested. So that was my initial opinion. But personal taste aside, this movie was flawless (especially in the boundaries of what the director had in mind.)

It's about a 38 year old married artist: thin, average appearance, with a penchant for sexual sadism (done to himself or his partner, he can go either way) ... and an 18 year old student: tall, pretty, willing to do anything.

There are very few other characters that appear; the movie follows these two very closely and has a documentary-like feel. The documentary style and with a constantly moving hand held camera, I think, would have made the movie feel long and laborious had the director not included some of the craziest techniques I've ever seen. At one point, they had sex in a very silly high speed. Another example is when, during a scene where the girl's friend beats her up in a jealous rage, the director yells "cut!" and the film crew comes in to the picture as the actresses hug and recover. Also, this movie has some great, memorable lines:

Y (the girl) proclaims to J (the man), "So cute, but weird. I missed it so much. I could cut it off and take it with me!"

J says to Y over the phone, "Sock marks are so sexy."

And my favorite: narrated by J, "Y had no other luggage with her. What else would an innocent angel need? Just a school uniform with little angel wings. And the stick that makes everyone happy."

Some things about the description to this movie though are misleading. It sounds like it's full of psychology and that J ends up going too far and Y withdraws. She's understandably pulled into other directions eventually (growing up and all) but their relationship only ends when she moves to Brazil. The only lies involved are the ones that they tell to others, not each other. There's never a climax or demise to their relationship as with most erotic films. Which personally, I thought was refreshing. It's really just a crazy, kinky film. It's heavily crafted though and brilliantly acted which moves it from being simply entertaining to also "ah.. uh..... interesting!"

The DVD is in Korean with optional English subtitles. Comes with a trailer, filmographies, and a statement from the director .. in which he sums it up well with: "It only takes a small change of angle to see love as absurd or hopeless."

Rating:
Summary: The fear of censorship
Review: The film is an exploration of sexual behaviour. A couple explores its sexuality through S/M games becoming more and more intense. Is human , honest and convincing. And here is the miracle of the Corean censorship, or better the fear of it! The 3/4 of the film is involving sexual acts. In a miraculous way the director succeeds to show the less possible of the actors having sex! The position of the camera, the blured focus ect are the techniques used to avoid the prohibition of the film. The talented director tries to make an omellete without braking the eggs! He almost did it! I wouldn't like though to put myself in his position!

Rating:
Summary: Not a shock
Review: The movie it's attractive until the half, with plenty of love scenes and sadistic ones, but it's not as shocking as other movies. The movie becomes very disgusting when J wants to be whipped and he wants to be dominated, that's very weird. The problem it's the voice off and the sudden changes of rythm, when things go right, suddenly the image it's distortionated or the colour changes. However you can see the movie with no problem, I can't consider it a porn movie.

Rating:
Summary: about the movie lies......
Review: The story is basically about a school girl(Y) losing virginity to a married man(J). They met very often practising the same religion and there was once that Y's brother gets to know her sister's relationship with this married man and burnt his house. Y later retaliated by asking her friends to pass message around top reach his brother's ears which made him confused that he got into a bike accident(which killed him). Y learnt of his brother's death and went back to the family where she later met J the last time in Paris before she flew off to Brazil to meet her kins there. There is a hardcore scene after viewing the DVD for a few minutes. They are two sex scenes on bed and a handful of oral sex scenes and the beating scenes(almost similar to Japanese style of love 'torture') switched between the Y and J where they are beating marks on the Ass. Recommended purchase for those whom are interested in this genre of movie.

Rating:
Summary: unique, unconventional, beautiful
Review: This is a masterpiece. A disturbing movie. I first saw 'Lies' 2 years ago and I have been looking for the DVD since then because.. This is a masterpiece. What do I like about it? I am not a fan of the main subjects taken individually, ie sadomasochism, sex in front of the camera, etc. But everything has been sawed together so well that... The outcome is a ........... Yes, exactly that!

Rating:
Summary: Not as shocking as you've been led to believe
Review: This Korean film was the focus of SPCS moaning (unfounded, as usual), so naturally it immediately went on my list of must-see movies. The only positive thing about this morals society/ community watchdog group/ lobby group/ national menace is the free publicity they give movies- never mind they seldom bother to WATCH the movies that wind them up. David Lane had to watch BAISE MOI twice for it to fully sink in- which remains the only movie I've seen they've "publicized" where their complaints actually lived up to all the controversy hype. Proof that he's isn't half as clever as he thinks he is.
In actuality, LIES is a movie that will offend only the most wet-behind-the-ears conservatives, & could be described as 9 1/2 WEEKS meets THE GRADUATE.
Based on Jang Jung Il's novel "Tell Me A Lie", LIES tells of a torrid S&M based relationship between J (Lee Sang Hyun), a 38 year old sculptor whose wife is in Paris on business & Y (Kim Tae Yeon), a 17 year old student whose main goal is to lose her virginity before she graduates. We later learn that this is an emotional response to the suicide of her sister, a victim of brutal sexual abuse- Y would prefer to lose her virginity at a young age to a stranger than to lose it later through potential rape. Heavy stuff.
On a (slightly) lighter note, LIES features shots of the actors talking direct to the camera during the sex scenes & ECU's of nipple chomping, as well as lots of full frontal nudity. This softcore art outing soon takes a different turn when J & Y introduce BDSM practices into their relationship... and this of course marks the beginning of the end. It's probably safe to presume the movie's foley artist had a great time.
LIES is similar to the later British movie INTIMACY (which almost put me to sleep) except it's a bit more interesting.
Continuing the lighter contrast, the film is split into chapter segments which are titled to make the whole affair seem like a round of golf (this will make sense when you watch the movie).
The dialogue is often hilarious- in one scene the narrator says "J whips her 35 times to match her hip size". And more I can't write here so it will be a nice surprise when you see it for yourself.
Another interesting angle is that director Jang Sun-Woo has incorporated behind the scenes material into the actual film with the actors explaining why they chose to take on such controversial roles. Unfortuately, good intentions aside; this ploy comes off as simply intrusive & ruins the overall impact of the movie. It's still worth a look for all the (unnecessary) controversy it stirred up. I was a bit disappointed in that sense. LIES is far from being a masterpiece but its still worth watching for curiosity's sake.

Rating:
Summary: A Milestone Film From Conservative Korea
Review: This movie was filmed in numerous locations throughout Korea. I recognized parts of Seoul and Taegu in the movie. There is not much plot to go along with the S&M Light scenes in the film but it was never intended to really have one. This film was more of a rebellion against the Korean film industry which tends to censor films not meeting the government's moral or political dogma. I believe the film maker based his movie around the subject of S&M simply because the Korean Film Industry said he could not.

Many of its scenes (if not all) were filmed on one take ala El Mariachi. The film was actually banned in Korea for a short period of time. This film should be celebrated and supported for it's originality, spirit and stand against censorship rather than dismissed because of it's risqué subject matter. This is a milestone film for Korean cinema. If the subject matter is too hot for you then move to Utah and become a milkman.

Rating:
Summary: Portrait of an intense, obessessive relationship
Review: This, to me, felt like somewhat of a cross between "Lolita" and "In the Realm of the Senses". The sex and SM scenes are hot, mostly: there were a few technical details that broke the illusion. To see the descent of the couple into an alternate reality of their own making was chilling.