One of the most controversial Korean films of recent years, the deliberately provocative Lies charts an affair between a student and a middle-aged man. Y is a 38-year-old sculptor whose wife is studying abroad. J is in her final year of high-school, thinking about going to college. After a chance telephone conversation, Y blind-dates J, and she willingly offers him her virginity. This proves to be the beginning of a very torrid affair, fortified by strenuous sado-masochist foreplay, some flesh-carving and a touch of coprophilia. The film ultimately turns on questions of trust and distrust and it makes some smart points about why and when people lie to their partners. Director Jang Sun-woo has long railed against the hypocrisy of Korean society, whose outwardly conservative sexual mores mask a thriving sex industry and widespread exploitation of minors. Refused a rating at first and then released in a heavily censored version at home, Lies will be shown complete in this programme. Intending viewers are warned that some scenes are likely to disturb.
1999. English subtitles. Colour. 120 min.