Kim Ki-duk (South Korea)
South Korea in the fall of 1971, and the local villagers live in the literal shadow of a sprawling American army base - yes, the colonized metaphor is graphically evident from the opening shot. Indeed, with butchered dogs and blinded eyes and flayed skin and incinerated bodies, graphic is the operative word here, and grim is the dominant tone. Clearly, writer-director Kim Ki-duk intends these dark doings as an oh-so-symbolic incursion into the colonized mentality of the Korean peninsula. But while his visual imagery has undeniable power, its precise meaning occupies the extremes of the interpretive spectrum - didactically obvious one moment, frustratingly opaque the next. - R.G.

(Sun. Sept. 9, 9 p.m., Cumberland 3; Tues. Sept. 11, 4:15 p.m., Varsity 3)