Humanist

Like Danny Boyle's SHALLOW GRAVE or just about any Coen Brothers movie, South Korean director Mu-yeong Lee's ironically titled HUMANIST is a neo-noirish blend of the black-comedy and crime-caper-run-amok genres. As the spoiled, amoral son of a wealthy general, Matthew (Jae-mo Ahn) is certain that his father's money will buy him amnesty after a drunken hit-and-run accident that kills a police officer. But when daddy refuses to fork over the cash, Matthew and his two equally dissolute buddies, a sadistic eunuch named Euglena (Seong-jim Kang) and the brain-damaged Amoeba (Sang-myeon Park), decide to kidnap the general and hold him for ransom--resulting in a graphically violent, and darkly funny, series of bungling mishaps and bloody double-crosses. Lee cowrote the screenplay with fellow South Korean enfant terrible, director Chan-wook Park (OLDBOY, SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE).