Bad Guy [Edizione: Regno Unito] [Edizione: Regno Unito]

Controversial film by Korean director Kim Ki-duk about the twisted relationship between a college student-turned-prostitute and her mute gangland pimp. When Han-ki (Jo Jae-Hyeon), the silent but brutally violent leader of a gang in Seoul’s red light district, glimpses a pretty young student, Sun-hwa (Seo Won), in a crowd, he becomes instantly obsessed with her and kisses her without asking her permission in front of her boyfriend. Completely unapologetic, he is beaten by the police for the assault, but this doesn’t stop him stalking her on a shopping trip with her boyfriend. When Sun-hwa gets caught stealing, Han-ki seizes his opportunity to force her into prostiitution. He watches through a one-way mirror as she suffers excrutiating cruelty and abuse from a string of brutal clients, and the film charts her decline into humiliation, degradation and ultimate ruin. Whether the film depicts a poignant, twisted love between the two very damaged central characters, or an outrageously offensive glamourisation of gratuitous torture and abuse, is an ongoing debate among feminists and critics.