The Bon Vivant of Brooklyn

One part The Science of Sleep and two parts One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, this latest effort from suspense/thriller autuer Chan-Wook Park (who is best known for his "vengeance" trilogy: Oldboy, Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance, Lady Vengeance) is a pleasant horizon-expanding departure - it is, in fact, a love story, and a particularly tender one at that.

Who doesn't bring some baggage with them when they get into a relationship?  Isn't everybody damaged in some way?  In this case, the lovers just also happen to be schizophrenic.  This makes for some highly imaginative sequences and very funny special effects, as the not-sane people share their inner worlds with the viewer.  There are clearly times where you find yourself wondering: "Wait a minute - is this really happening?" as Park cleverly weaves objective and subjective reality together through his unreliably narrating characters.  Even later in the movie, when things go particularly haywire, even though you know that events that happened before weren't real, you still end up wondering if they're real this time.  It's a very effective suspension of disbelief and transportation into the minds of insane people.

The New York Asian Film Festival actually arranged for a third encore screening of this film due to popular demand; I'm hoping it gets a lot more exposure and greater distribution, because it really is a gem of a film.  If you're into offbeat romance, you're going to love this flick.