TEENAGE HOOKER BECAME KILLING MACHINE

(a.k.a. DAEHAKNO-YESEO MAECHOON-HADAKA TOMAKSALHAE DANGHAN YEOGOSAENG AJIK DAEHAKNO-YE ISSDA)

After an implausibly long opening credits sequence (7 minutes - and the feature itself only last for 60 minutes!), a pretty teenaged hooker in schoolgirl uniform (So-yun Lee) strolls into a darkened alley to meet with a client. She asks him whether he would prefer to be called "Honey" or "Dad", then offers him a special service - "Voluntary Date Rape" - for 30 grand.

Taking her up on the offer, the well-dressed client chases the hooker through various dark alleys until cornering her and pinning her up against a window, where energetic sex ensues.

Inside the building that they're humping against, an old widow moans about the noise and rings her son to complain. Moments later, the son arrives on the scene and the client briskly scarpers.

The hooker is startled to see that the widow's son is her teacher (Dae-tong Kim). She offers him a freebie - a 50 grand special - if he'll let her off. The teacher accepts the offer, and the pair begin to dance to an indie song (yes, that's right) in the alleyway.

Then they bicycle to a nearby shithole apartment where they have sex on a luminous bed. After sex, the girl rolls over on to her side, with her back to her teacher, and tells him that she has fallen in love with him. She also tells him that she has an inkling that she has fallen pregnant to him and begins to make plans for their impending baby.

But the teacher is no longer in the bed. He's gone to the door to let in three friends who have arrived to kill the hooker and saw her into pieces. This they do, leaving her corpse in a bloody mess on the glowing bed.

After a short while, a sharp-dressed man in shades enters the apartment and observes the damage done to the hooker. He picks her body pieces up and drags them away in a sack, taking them to a dingy laboratory where a white-haired geek works on reassembling the hooker's body and turning her into a killing machine.

The hooker is assigned as an assassin for this shady government agency, and sent to kill a couple of men in a café. But upon learning that she cannot be killed by mere bullets, the hooker decides to go off on a mission of her own: to avenge her death …

TEENAGE HOOKER is pretty bonkers. The title alone is a fair indication of what to expect. Plenty of nudity and gore (splashy after-effects more than startling FX, admittedly) are the order of the day here, along with a painfully cool soundtrack that includes the likes of Primal Scream, Massive Attack and Mozart.

The film is shot on DV but looks extremely stylish at times, making good use of bright lighting, vivid colour schemes and unusual camera angles. The editing and various trickery (slow-motion, speeded-up film, etc) keep the film interesting on a visual level, and for the most part you'll forget the film's micro-budget origins.

The sci-fi element of the film is not as much a part of the story as it could or perhaps should have been, and if the film were to have been extended in any way this is probably where the storyline would have benefited most. It would have been interesting for the film to expand on the shady government scheme's involvement with the re-animated hooker.

But in a film that makes virtually no sense and relies on arresting visuals to get by, picking at the plot seems somewhat churlish. Instead, it's best to enjoy TEENAGE HOOKER for it's soundtrack, it's crazy set-piece scenes and keen pacing. Oh, and Kim's frightening performance as the sleaziest teacher ever to grace the screen.

If there is any major drawback in the film, it's that it frequently resembles a music video in the way it's edited and the way it appears at times to be padded out with musical interludes. In a 60-minute film, there really should be no need for such padding.

It's easy to see why TEENAGE HOOKER has been compared to ERASERHEAD (the general oddness and lunatic atmosphere), NIKITA (the plot) and TETSUO: THE IRON MAN (the low-budget Asian sci-fi/gore moulding), but it remains inferior to all three. Interesting, occasionally funny, but ultimately forgettable.

This R2 disc presents the film uncut (in fairness, it does have splatter but it's all of the comic book variety - there's precious little to worry the censor here), in a 1.85:1 presentation. The back cover states that the film is 16x9 enhanced, but it is not.

The transfer isn't too great. Images are often far too bright, and contrast is set too high.

The Korean 2.0 audio is clear throughout, if a tad on the quiet side. Optional English subtitles are easy to read and largely free from typing errors.

Static menus include a scene-selection menu allowing access to the main feature via 6 chapters.

Extras include the 30-minute film KANGCHUL, director by TEENAGE HOOKER helmer Gee-woong Nam. It's a bizarre, surreal visual assault of flash-editing and skewered camera angles, much more cyber-punk in delivery and content than the comparatively sedate TEENAGE HOOKER.

KANGCHUL is also shot on DV, and looks no better or worse in presentation. It comes with Korean mono audio and burned-in English subtitles.

Finally, we get trailers for ten other titles: PTU, GUNS AND TALKS, FOX FAMILY; NO BLOOD NO TEARS; FRIEND; SAY YES; WILD CARD; PEPPERMINT CANDY; KICK THE MOON and DASEPO NAUGHTY GIRLS.

TEENAGE HOOKER is definitely worth taking a look at. Also, it should be said that the disc is available at budget price too. Although the film ultimately runs out of steam after a hectic opening, it's got enough interesting set-pieces to make it just about worthwhile.

Review by Stu Willis