Inner Turbulence

FRI.-SUN., AUG. 20-22

SOUTH KOREAN CINEMA has finally begun to penetrate the consciousness of art-house film buffs here in New York in the past year or two, with the release of Im Kwon-Taek's magisterial biopic Chihwaseon and the surprising success of Kim ki-Duk's lovely Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter?and Spring.

This year's New York Korean Film Festival-composed solely of entries from the south; a pity, as I'm sure some totalitarian propaganda courtesy of Kim Jong-Il would have been a real hoot-presents a more mainstream, user-friendly face to South Korean cinema than the contemplative, Buddhist-inflected tones of Im and Kim. "Inner Turbulence" includes multiple examples of what is rapidly becoming a favorite genre amongst Korean filmmakers: the Seven-damaged, grisly policier. Lee Jong-Hyuk's debut H takes place in rain-drenched Pusan, where Detective Kang (Ji Jin-Hee) and his colleagues investigate a series of symbolically linked, brutal murders of women.

The m.o. is eerily reminiscent of serial killer Shin Hyun (Cho Seung-Woo), but he has been behind bars for months already. Lee indulges in a taste for the stomach-churning visuals common to Korean filmmakers (a beautiful clubgoer's ear being sliced off, various exposed viscera), but H also features a rip-roaring plot with atmospherics to boot.

Kim Yoo-Jin's Wild Card is like H played partially for laughs. Here, Bang Jay-Soo (Yang Dong-Keun) is the leather-jacketed cop smoothie chasing the baddies, a quartet of juvenile offenders led by a Korean dead ringer for Trent Reznor. Never ceasing in his quest to bring 'em to justice, Jay-Soo also finds the time to joke about colleagues' inactive sex lives (one crony is nicknamed Biannual by his wife) and meet with his cute crush by stopping her repeatedly and asking for her ID (isn't police invasion of privacy hilarious?). Both films share effortlessly cool protagonists willing to crack heads to crack their cases, and spooky, goth-inspired criminals whose pointless heinousness points to an evil beyond comprehension. Wild Card engages in the same gore and metaphysical good vs. evil as H, but pauses to smell the roses and laugh as well-a pleasant tonic in the midst of all the hyper-masculine violence.

Jang Jun-Hwan's Save the Green Planet! is a downright strange one, a science-fiction yarn about a geek who kidnaps a CEO because he believes the businessman is an alien from Andromeda?or maybe it's revenge for getting fired?

The film's cleverest touch plays on the codes of the Korean police film, featuring a disgraced former detective, still clad in his standard-issue black leather, still attempting to maintain his aura of invincible expertise while working for peanuts in a factory. Some habits are hard to break.

BAM Rose Cinemas, 30 Lafayette Ave. (betw. Ashland Pl. & St. Felix St.), Brooklyn, 718-636-4100; call fortimes, $10, $7 st.