Man in Love

Han Dong-wook's 2014 Korean film is about a man who collects debts for a moneylender. Tae-il is a thug who takes money from people by force and does not question it. On one collection he meets a woman caring for her sick father and becomes attached to someone for the first time in his life. Around the same time he receives a terminal diagnosis. From there the film turns into a story of atonement, with the man trying to put right what he has done in the time he has left. It follows the familiar shape of Korean melodrama and aims openly at emotional effect, though Hwang Jung-min's performance keeps the character neither entirely likeable nor forgivable, and that balance carries the film slightly outside the form. The woman growing close to a man who did this to her is the most contested element. Who it's for: viewers who like Korean melodrama and character-led love stories. Who it's not for: anyone who will find how the relationship begins uncomfortable; the film does not question it enough.