Lies

Based on a novel banned as 'pornographic', Jang's follow-up to Timeless, Bottomless Bad Movie is a devastating account of amour fou. A married sculptor (his wife is abroad) blind-dates a high school girl and quickly takes her virginity. They launch into an affair in which the girl submits more or less willingly to a series of whippings and beatings. The man sees these as no more than strenuous foreplay, but when the roles are reversed, the girl proves to be made of sterner stuff - not least when touches of coprophilia and murder enter the frame. And when it's all over, the ending contrasts the intensity of the affair with the 'lies' on which conventional relationships rest. Made with two absolutely fearless first-time actors, this amazing film recaptures something of the shock L'Age d'or provoked in 1930.