Chilsu and Mansu

Park's first film begins like a buddy movie - it's the story of two billboard painters: Chilsu is a youthful romantic and a bit of a dreamer; Mansu is older, quieter and hard-drinking. The tone shifts subtly with the progress of Chilsu's courtship of a pretty student, and gradually this portrait of a generation obsessed with Western culture takes on a political dimension: when the two friends stand atop one of their own billboards, discussing their frustration with the fledgling democracy down below them, the police mistakenly assume they are staging a protest, with potentially dangerous implications. An estimable film, funny, provocative and very well acted.