Korean director Hee-il Leesong shows us the payoff when a nation supports its young filmmakers. South Korea, I still maintain, is producing some of the finest directors out there. In this sorrid tale a young orphan Su Min (played by Nam-gil Kim)'s factory job is saved by the intervention of the boss' closeted gay son, Han Lee (played by Young-hoon Lee). But Su Min ends up quitting anyway to take up a job dancing naked at a gay karaoke club where the staff provide any level of sexual service you'd like. Han Lee soon follows smitten with his love for Su Min. The film is well done, though could have benefited from fewer corny bits (some perhaps lost in translation true) and the - seemingly - odd plunge into noirish revenge at its end. With a few more films under his belt, Hee-il Leesong will refine his skill and provide us a movie filled with scenes as moving in their emotional and visual statement as the couple he captured in No Regrets. I will remember Su Min, his outstretched hand tossing his friend's ashes from the car as it speeds down the highway, and the lovers whispering their secrets to each other, for some time.
My rating 7 out of 10.
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