Lies

...but this South Korean hunk of porn with pretensions was. The account of an S&M relationship between a schoolgirl and a dirty old man, LIES keeps making feints at art-movieness that suggest the silly "socially redeeming" side of stuff like I AM CURIOUS YELLOW. (In one particularly embarrassing conceit, the non-actors playing the leads discuss their discomfort at doing sex scenes.

Ah, the Brechtianness of it all!) To think that crap like Catherine Breillat's ROMANCE and this monstrosity get shown in America's arthouses, while the latest Bela Tarr, Godard and Hou are sitting on the shelf, is an injustice of Katherine Harris proportions.

As I recall, in G. Lucas' film "THX-1138" there was a television channel that featured nothing but a robot beating a naked person with his billy club. When I first saw this, I laughed out loud at the obvious satire of our society's need for sex and violence in our entertainment. I had much the same feeling after seeing this film.

At first the film seemed like a competent look at how two people in love want to explore every aspect of each other's bodies. The initial mild S&M just seemed like a logical extension of that exploration. But when the beatings bordered on mutual self destruction, I immediately saw this as lampooning our society's need for ever increasing "kicks" to satisfy our insatiable lust for ever increasing degradation of the human body.

The director suckered us in and punched us right in the gut! Bravo!.

This often startling account of a progressively S&M tinged love affair (and, yes, that is the right word for it) between an 18 year old schoolgirl and a married man twice her age remains currently banned in its native South Korea where it's considered pornographic. In a sense it is, considering how much of the film's running time is devoted to fairly explicit (at times clearly non-simulated) sexual encounters. What sets this film apart from other recent releases that have incorporated hardcore footage as part of their narrative (like the astonishing BAISE-MOI or Lars Von Trier's THE IDIOTS) is that here there is actual warmth and sensuality to the copulation sequences, even when the protagonists are beating the feces out of each other, making it much harder one presumes for moralists to condemn on grounds of lacking humanity or compassion. Not that they would allow themselves to be seduced by this deeply moving yet quietly disturbing film in the first place. I for one found it exquisitely erotic (and frequently sweetly funny with the lovers' DIY approach to S&M), even - or especially, perhaps - in its more extreme moments, all of which handled beautifully by the two non-professional leads. The pared-down visual style gives the movie an edge and intensity, as if you're watching real people in a documentary rather than a fiction film. The movie's English title is explained in the shattering last line. It would sound glib to call this a REALM OF THE SENSES for millennium's end but that's the comparison that comes to mind.

When I first popped this DVD in, I had no idea what I was in store for. Sure, I read the description on the back and the reviewers quotes and I knew it was unrated, but I had no idea... Lies is a bold film. Whether you despise the places it dares to go or admire it for going there, you cannot argue the fact that it goes to the outer most limit. At times I found myself queasy, sometimes out of how graphic the sex was and other times out of a feeling that I was uncomfortable for the actors for being that naked -- i'm not talking about just their skin -- i mean their vulnerability being in those scenes to begin with. Although I would usually ask what the point of a movie this raw is, in this case I have to say that I'm really glad that I saw it. I don't know what you walk away with from it, but I do know that I'm always psyched to see something different cinematically than what I already know and surprisingly satisfied to discover a film that I didn't know existed. Lies delivered both. I can't really put my finger on what it is about the film and it's not my type (AT ALL) but it's worth it. For some intangible reason, it is worth it and has much merit.

If you're not uptight and can deal with watching thing that you would probably not venture nor wish to do and want to see a filmmaker totally unashamed and unfazed at exploring a genre, then this is a movie that is definitely worth seeing. 7/10.

I was unfortunate enough to catch the last 15-20 minutes of this movie one late night. I was horrified. How it could be played on cable TV without some kind of warning in the title, i don't know.

It was on again last night. I dared not turn the channel.

It scares me that this movie was allowed to come into Australia. I mean, yeah its art blah blah, but how did it get thru those Christian groups who lobbied against eyes wide shut and that french film that had real sex. Cos this is not faked lovie dovie sex. Its awful, and it turned me off having sex if it looked like that! i mean, ew! wrongness!

So: If you're into the whole S&M beating the ass with stuff, well go ahead, watch it. But if you have a weak stomach, or cant handle graphic sex scenes, don't watch it.