麻豆社

Tae-Suk (Jae Hee) is a drifter who breaks into empty houses, not to loot them but just to spend the night and do a bit of laundry. The game is up when he creeps into the house where Sun-Hwa (Lee Seung-Yeon) cowers in fear of her violent husband. When the bully returns home and beats his wife, Tae-Suk takes revenge with the titular 3-Iron golf club and flees with Sun-Hwa into an enigmatic, slow-burning love story.

Naturally, hubby isn't happy and it's not long before the fugitive lovers are in police custody after one break-in too many. But Tae-Suk and Sun-Hwa aren't going to let a silly thing like interrogation and incarceration snuff out their burning flame.

"A TENDER AND UNUSUAL LOVE STORY"

Like Kim Ki-Duk's previous films (The Isle, Bad Guy), 3-Iron has its own internal logic: Tae-Suk's house-hunting method is improbable to say the least and it's remarkable he isn't caught out more often. There's also an episodic quality isolating various scenes from the rest of the plot, and one tragic golfing incident in particular is quickly forgotten about.

But all these are merely devices to bring two lonely souls together and, with not a word spoken between them (both Jae and Lee have virtually no dialogue throughout), their strange relationship blossoms into something completely different. With Sun-Hwa portrayed as a powerless victim surrounded by forceful men, 3-Iron isn't going to win any prizes for furthering of the cause of female emancipation. But if the snail's pace doesn't send you to sleep, you'll be rewarded with a tender and unusual love story.

In Korean with English subtitles.