3-Iron

Jae Hee (left) and Lee Seung-yeon are housebreakers with a difference.

Herald rating: * * * *

Mysterious, fragile and engrossing, this small Korean film is very different in content from its writer/director's earlier Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter ... and Spring.

It's distinguished by the same formal inventiveness, the same visual acuity and the same ability to conjure allegorical magic from a simple storyline.

It's also, notably, a virtually silent film. The two main characters don't exchange a word and when there is dialogue, it is on the lips of coarse and vulgar people and it erupts loudly and violently into the film's delicate and noiseless world.

Tae-suk (Hee) cruises the streets of Seoul's better-heeled neighbourhoods on his motorcycle, hanging menus for a takeaway franchise on the handles of locked front doors. Sometimes, if he finds a menu untouched, he assumes the occupants are away and breaks in.

His MO, unlike a burglar's, is to help himself to whatever food he finds, fix broken household appliances, handwash laundry and water houseplants.

Comfortably ensconced in one home, however, he discovers he is not alone. The unhappy, abused woman of the house, Sun-hwa (Seung-yeon), has watched him for several hours before deciding he is no ordinary intruder and coming out of hiding. With remorseless logic, she becomes his partner in this Zen crime spree and, inevitably, his lover.

The story mixes elements of domestic crime thriller and fairy tale with an oddly kooky comedy (the explanation of the title, one suspects, would not work in a non-Korean film).

The change of pace when the speaking starts is shockingly abrupt, which is the intention, but it ups the dramatic ante and lends extra weight to a charming final scene.

The film is enchanting and ambiguous without being inscrutable or abstruse. It remains so open to interpretation that the leaden on-screen postscript is redundant and intrusive. But for fans of Asian cinema it is a definite treat.

CAST: Lee Seung-yeon, Jae Hee
DIRECTOR: Kim Ki-duk
RUNNING TIME: 87 mins
RATING: M, contains violence
SCREENING: Academy from Thursday