The best way to describe this film is that it's like a puzzle that you have to piece together in order to see the overall picture. Unfortunately, once all the pieces are in place you discover that the picture is like an abstract painting which is open to interpretation. Because of that, it is quite possible that I have missed a hidden nuance or misinterpreted an event which changes the overall message. That said, feel free to disregard anything that you don't feel is pertinent. Also be advised that in order to try to explain the meaning of this film it is necessary to reveal large portions of it. Therefore, if you haven't seen the movie and want to figure it out on your own please disregard any further comments. Having said that, as far as I can tell this is a story told in 4 parts. All of the parts are held together by a single thread in that everything happens in Room 407 of a cheap hotel in Seoul known as the "Motel Cactus". The first story centers on an attractive woman named "Choi Hyun-Joo" (Hee-Kyung Jin) who is in love with a married man, "Lee Mi-Ku" (Woo-Sung Jung). They celebrate her birthday by having passionate sex but after everything is said and done both of them know that their relationship is coming to an end. The second story features two college students who are working on a film for their school project. One is a naive young woman named "Seo-Kyung" (Kim Seung Hyun) who apparently loses her virginity to the other student, "Joon-Ki" (Woong-Soo Han). Whether or not this was part of the film project is not known to me but it appears that she regrets it afterward. The third story reintroduces Choi Hyun-Joo who is melancholy over her failed relationship with Lee Mi-Ku and has returned to the same hotel and reserved the same room-presumably in an effort to relive her memories. She gets drunk at the bar and ends up having a sexual encounter with another man named "Kim Suk-Tae" (Shin-Yang Park). While he is sleeping she gets dressed and leaves without saying a word. The fourth story revolves around a young divorced woman named Min Hee-Soo (Mi-Yeon Lee) who still has feelings for a former boyfriend-who just happens to be the same man in the previous episode, Kim Suk-Tae. And although they each want to reconnect there seems to be too much that has happened between them for either of them to reconcile. Whether the sexual encounter crystallized this or not isn't quite clear but they both seem to realize it all the same. In short, this is a film about loneliness which is only temporarily relieved by sex. Afterward, things are no better. The cinematography was excellent, the acting was good, the actresses were all quite beautiful, but the story was confusing and the script left much to be desired. Now, I have no doubt this movie would fit in rather well at certain film festivals due to the artistic approach that was taken. But I doubt it would satisfy a general movie audience and my rating takes that into account.
Review of Motel Cactus
