301/302

It's a thin line between good taste and bad, and 301/302 approaches it as if it were hell bent on setting a new Olympic record in the long jump. It is, in fact, the perfect non-date movie, since after watching it you won't be interested in food or sex, or even watching movies for that matter. Eun-Jin Bang and Sin-Hye Hwang star as the titular 301 and recently disappeared 302, single apartment-dwelling women with particular deep-seated psychological problems revolving around mistreatment by men. Dispensing with normal point of view early on, the film is told in flashbacks through the eyes of both 301 and (the absent) 302. The former, a slightly chunky divorcee who's obsessed with gourmet cooking becomes unrealistically annoyed at 302's svelte figure, and decides to fatten her up. Except 302, a writer, can't eat anything (without immediately praying to the porcelain god; how she actually survives without food is never explained). So begins a veritable war for 302's gullet. Astute viewers will predict the twisted ending long before it arrives, as the film routinely-in and around its striking primary-color laden cinematography, which highlights dish after dish of gorgeous food-pushes the envelope, so to speak, subject-wise. Most people, I would submit, are not going to be thrilled to watch a black comedy about vomiting, rape, and worse, which is not to say that 301/302 isn't, at times, clever; it's just unpleasant and ultimately...overbaked. An optional purchase. (R. Pitman)DVD Review--January 25, 2005--Koch Lorber, 98 min., in Korean w/English subtitles, not rated, $24.98--Making its debut on DVD, 1995's 301/302 is presented in a very good full screen transfer with a solid Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, but with no extras. Bottom line: although it looks and sounds good on DVD, 301/302 remains--no pun intended--an acquired taste, and is an optional purchase.]