An extraordinary independent filmmaker, Lee Sang-woo returns to the Busan International Film Festival with this controversial ‘big budget’ feature, made for some cost of $100,000. [Father is a Dog], Lee’s extremely low budget film, made quite a stir at last year’s festival. His new film is a cynical road map of ‘adoption paradise’, Korea, in family drama form. The family in question is dysfunctional to the extreme. The mother is never there for her family and the father is disabled. The prodigal uncle schemes to give his niece up for adoption and the little sister insists on going for the adoption in place of her sister, purely out of her own vanity, not knowing the adoption in this case may mean death. It is wonderful to see Lee have the opportunity to work with a budget generous enough to allow him to realize his unique artistic vision in a project with production values to rival any commercial feature. And yet, despite its glossier look, this new film maintains the same critical edge of Lee’s earlier works. Like the second son in [Father is a Dog], the daughter in Barbie turns down the chance to realize the American Dream for the sake of her cursed family, while her disabled father tries to protect her, and yet all ends with lingering sadness in the director’s unique violent allegory. Lee Chun-hee in the role of uncle, and Kim Se-ron and Kim A-ron’s performances are all impressive. (JEON Chanil)