Toronto. M.

"There is little doubt that Korea's Lee Myung-Se is one of the purest cinematic talents working in the world today," writes Todd Brown at Twitch. "That said, his devotion to form often leads to some problems with story and while with M Lee irons out the tonal problems that plagued The Duelist to craft one of his most unified and focused works to date the film is so heavily constructed that the highly structured form obscures the emotional core of the story resulting in what is arguably his least accessible film thus far."

But for colleague Kurt Halfyard, "With M he has found a subject (to call it a story would be to imply that Lee has an interest in linear narrative, which would be highly misleading) so worthy of his visual peculiarities that images, thoughts and emotions swirl around long after the screen goes dark.... It is not perfect, but better for its imperfections."

"Had I read the program description for [Lee's] latest film M, I might have been clued into just how dreadful it would turnout to be, because it plays to all his weaknesses and none of his strengths," writes Scott Tobias at the AV Club.

Posted by dwhudson at October 3, 2007 5:23 AM