Happy End

First-time director Jung ventures into Chabrol territory with a sexual triangle drama which ends in murder and (literally) transferred guilt. The central couple are interestingly conceived: the man (Choi) has become a house-husband since losing his banking job and spends his time squatting in a used-book store when he isn't watching TV, doing domestic chores or minding the baby; the woman (Chun) runs a profitable language school and launches into a torrid affair with her first love from adolescence (Ju), evidently the only man she has ever really loved. Naturalistic playing and reasonably ingenious plotting carry the film quite a long way, but it never reaches the higher, allusive level it seems to be aiming for. Kim's superbly controlled camerawork couldn't be more different from his hand-held style on Lies.