One of the best things about Fantasia Festival is that they debut a variety of Asian horror films to the west, some of which we might not even see in America (seriously, why isn’t Door Lock available here?). Here are a few that debuted during Fantasia Festival’s opening weekend.

Next Door

For five years, Chan-woo (Oh Dong-min) has tried and failed the test to become a police officer, much to the chagrin of his parents and not-so-gentle teasing of his peers. His next door neighbor doesn’t help much, thanks to the constant stream of noises and fights and verbal arguments seeping through the thin walls. Chan-woo is at his wit’s end, his bank account is sitting at $1.68, he’s studying up on the lotto to try to win some money, and his frustration grows to a peak where he shouts at the wall, “If I fail again, I’ll kill you all!” So he calls up his buddy to ask if he could borrow some money and his friend promises to give him money if he comes out with the boys for dinner. Chan-woo reluctantly agrees, but dinner turns into shots which turns into a raucous night of partying and implied fights and violence, ending with Chan-woo in bed the next morning, his cheek scratched, his eye swelling and his wrist bruised.

Oh and he didn’t pass out in his bed. He’s in his next door neighbor's bed. And there’s a dead body, soaking in a puddle of blood on the apartment floor.

Chan-woo has no recollection of the night, bursts of flashbacks coming in like static as he tries to remember how he got here and whether he’s involved in the dead person on the floor. What follows is a single-location murder mystery mixed with a gentle comedy of errors as Chan-woo alternates between wanting to leave and using his five years of police studying to try to solve the mystery. Along the way, he’s sabotaged by religious solicitors, an overly-eager-to-help landlady and more.

Next Door is entertaining but it’s relatively light and monotonous, particularly in the second act. Oh Dong-min commits to his performance and most of the humor comes from his reactions to the events and his physical acting as he tries to put together exactly what happened and whether he’s guilty in the murder. But the second act, aside from a few moments of police procedural that go from trying to examine the wounds to using the body’s fingerprints to unlock a phone to assessing the crime scene, doesn’t have enough to keep the momentum going. Things improve towards the end of the film, as Next Door introduces some wrinkles and gives Chan-woo someone to interact with, changing the tempo from a slightly humorous murder mystery to a paranoid thriller comedy. This one, ultimately, is only slightly amusing unfortunately.

Popran

After bursting onto the scene with the delightful One Cut of the Dead (seriously, go watch it!) and then hitting up Fantasia in 2019 with the fun, if not as good Special Actors, indie writer/director Shin'ichirô Ueda is back with a movie that seems, on paper, to be his most ridiculous movie yet. In execution, though, it’s unfortunately his weakest movie.

Tagami (Yoji Minagawa) is a successful businessman with an app that provides manga to its users. He came from humble beginnings, as explained in an opening “gotcha” interview, as a manga enthusiast with a partner (who he dumped), parents (who he left), and an ex-wife and daughter (who he abandoned to go to Tokyo). Now, his app has over 5 million downloads and he’s rich, cocky and dismissive of everyone around him. After a night of business-wooing a manga writer, and then lustfully wooing the artist’s assistant, Tagami wakes up with a problem.

His penis is missing.

In its place is a very small hole he can pee out of, but can’t quite control. There’s a scene of him attempting to pee in a urinal (why he doesn’t sit down on a toilet isn’t really explained, though might be tied up in his idea of masculinity) that ends with him staring at a coworker who entered, the pee uncontrollably pouring down his pants. He discovers a QR code embedded in a drawing that looks suspiciously like a man’s lower region and it leads him to the Popran Group. Turns out, there’s been reports of unidentified flying objects around Tokyo, moving too fast to be seen and those objects are, in fact, the zooming penises of men who, for whatever reason, wake up with their dicks missing. Tagami is given instructions (he must find his penis in 6 days) and a butterfly net and is sent on his way.

Popran’s main storyline is curbed from A Christmas Carol’s structure, as Tagami goes into his past to meet the people he’s wronged along the way, from his former partner, to his ex wife and his parents. The film brought to mind the zaniness of Scrooged, except that film handled the humor with more finesse. Outside of seeing his former friends, family and lover, it’s not exactly explained how these interactions change him. Instead, he generally sees how they are living without him and, I suppose, a glimpse of what life could have been? But for a movie whose general conceit surrounds a man who must reclaim his dick to be less of a dick, Tagami’s redemption arc feels relatively flaccid. And for a film about flying penises and butterfly nets, Popran lacks the frenetic and joyous humor that dominated his earlier work. It’s not quite funny enough to entertain and it’s not dramatic enough to teach. It finds itself in the unenvious position of being somewhat interesting but not quite ready for action.

Special Delivery

Things improve drastically with Park Dae-min’s Special Delivery (AKA Special Cargo), a film that riffs on a number of Hollywood films but grounds the action in fantastic performances and stellar car chases.

Jang Eun-ha (Parasite’s Park So-dam) is a driver for a very specific and illicit delivery service, the kind that will pick up a duo of criminals trying to flee a bank robbery and deliver them to safety. She’s stylish, emotionless and really damn good at her job. In an opening delivery, she manages to make abrupt u-turns, slide reverse-ways into a parallel parking spot to evade pursuit and drive through impossibly small alleys. It’s a fantastically-staged action set piece, the kind that used to be par for the Hollywood action movie course but has been sidelined for CG extravaganzas and superheroes in recent years.

Yes, Special Delivery feels like Korea’s answer to Drive and Park So-dam’s Jang can match Ryan Gosling’s Driver turn for turn and car trick for car trick, but the thumping synth soundtrack and the overall feel of the film evokes an older generation of films. The main thrust of the story centers around former baseball player Kim Du-shik (Yeon Woo-jin) who is in trouble with some gangsters because of the bag of cash he has and a key fob worth millions. He needs to get out of Korea with his son Seon-won (Jeong Hyun-ju) and, through a friend/broker gets introduced to Jang’s sort of special delivery service. Unfortunately, corrupt cop/gangster Jo Kyung-pil (Song Sae-byeok) and his cronies catch up with him and only the terrified Seon-won shows up at Jang’s car. After hesitating for a second, she lets the kid in, takes off and is caught up in a really bad situation. On her tail are Kyung-pil’s cops, as well as his gang members, a special investigation section of the cops, and a ruthless torturer/interrogator.

Aside from all the action, which is handled by a deft hand, Special Delivery is grounded in Park So-dam and Jeong Hyun-ju’s performances. The two of them craft an uneasy balance of annoyed adult and precocious child as well as the dire situation the two of them are in. They have an easy camaraderie together that fortunately doesn’t verge into stereotypical depictions of femininity and “maternal instincts.” Jang sees the cash and has a past that makes her susceptible to Seon-won’s plight, as opposed to her simply being a female character who must protect a child. The second act is a bit sluggish, as the action slows down into the necessities of getting supplies, hiding out, etc., but whenever Jo Kyung-pil catches Jang’s trace or whenever they’re in the car, writer/director Dae-min Park’s Special Delivery soars.