THE LIAR (GEOJINMAL) Breakthrough

Beautiful, immaculately dressed, in control: Ah-young glides through Seoul’s luxury penthouses, department stores and showrooms with the taste and confidence of the most elite of first-world consumers…until the bill arrives. Home for Ah-young is a dirty, cramped hovel shared with her troubled brother and alcoholic sister, while work consists of injecting Botox into the faces of women several rungs higher on the economic ladder. When challenged over her too-good-to-be-true engagement to a wealthy, handsome suitor, Ah-young responds the only way she knows how: by frantically constructing a growing web of deceit as the last connective strands to her family, friends and herself unravel. Alternating between crystalline wide-angle lensing and tight handheld shots, Kim Dong-myung’s THE LIAR is a sharp, powerful critique of rampant consumerism that ratchets up the tension in the tradition of the best thrillers, leading to an ending that will be discussed long after the lights come up. — Cedar Sherbert