Roadmovie

Remarkable debut feature that takes Korean macho masculinity literally to the end of the road. Ruined stockbroker Suk-Won (Jung) becomes one more piece of social jetsam. Rejected by his wife, he discovers a community of sorts among the winos on the streets of Seoul, dominated by the ultra-macho Dae-Shik (Hwang), a one-time celebrity mountaineer. Dae-Shik helps rescue Suk-Won from himself and suggests a cross-country trip together; only after encounters with various damaged women and men (including strung-out waitress Il-Joo and Dae-Shik's abandoned wife and son) does Suk-Won realise that he's the focus of an all-male love story. There are several strange assumptions about love, pain and gay self-hatred running close to the surface here, but the fearless performances and arresting visuals (somewhere between Cassavetes and Kore-eda) carry a high level of conviction.