My wife and I watched a South Korean horror flick, Pink Shoes (Bunhongshin), last night. It's nothing to tout for a film festival award, but it did show how consistent South Korean movies have become technically. Moreover, what impressed me most was the strong female lead, a single mother, although a murderer, whose husband cheated on her, and who is, at least until the plot twists, divorced. Another feature is the inclusion of a Japanese villainess, which I suppose will be a stock feature of South Korean movies for decades to come.

The best way to find out about South Korean society, its gossipy details and controversies, in the same way science fiction and horror movies reveal western society's underbelly, is to watch these B horror movies. Although, like Japanese ones, South Korean horror movies employ stock features, like ghosts with long, face-obscuring hair floating over the ground, it's more common to see strong, unconventional female characters and controversial topics, like divorce, infidelity, and single parenthood, in these flicks than in mainstream romantic comedies. And, there's the therapeutic benefits of a good shock.

Cross-Posted at Barbarian Envoy