Header image  
Park Chulsoo's Collection  
 
    home
 

301/302

 

  Directed by Park Chulsoo

South Korea 1995 / Black Comedy / Thriller / 99 min / Color / Dolby  2.0 /  4:3 Full Frame Presentation / NTSC /  In Korean with Optional English Subtitles

Pang Eun-Jin, Hwang Shin-hae, Kim Chu-ryuen

301 302 explores the mysterious disappearance of one of two young women who live across the hall from each other in a modern apartment complex in Seoul, Korea. The women, referred to by their apartment number, each share common yet dissimilar obsessions: eating disorders and problematic relationships with men. 301(Eunjin Pang) is an amateur cook whose spare time is spent preparing and eating lavish meals, while her bookish and reclusive neighbor 302(Shinhae Hwang) becomes ill at the mere sight or smell of food. In a series of flashbacks, we see how the relationship between the two women develops and learn the shocking secret of what happened to 302.

Food implies sex to two characters. The pleasure of cooking is the one of sex to Room #301 Woman. To whom divorced woman that means she has no mate to love. Otherwise the pain of eating is the one of sex to Room #302 woman. She thinks either eating or sexes are extremely dirty. 301 forces 302 to eat her food, but 302 never ever is able to accept it. A woman who should give something to somebody and a woman who couldn't get anything from anybody. These two girls are all solitude and pains themselves. So 302 asks 301 to cook with herself. This cooking is killing for their truly spirtitual survivals. In the point of cannibalism this movie has cult element. This cult element makes us introspect human's fundamental problems in life through food and sex of basic desires. It has a fresh topic, techniques, and plentiful symbols.

This film is one of remarkable great works in recent Korean movies, which shows a new possibility to us.