Director LEE Man Hee’s later masterpiece and low-budge product completed during the deep recession of the Korean Industry. With the limitations of a low-budget movie, A Triangular Trap still offers strange pleasure, a mixture of signature LEE pessimism, the noir style, a cathartic action fare, and a mystery-thriller format. The story is about a woman who is about to inherit a large sum of money and three men in her life and their conspiracy. Reflecting the director’s pessimistic view, the men and the woman seem to fight for a minimum dose of pure love against their lives destined to fail. No one freaks out: the villains are calm, and their victim, the heiress, falls to misery as if it was all written in. Love between the two main characters is confirmed only when things have gotten way out of control. Despite the predictable plot, as well as the repeated reversals in the storytelling geared just to get things going, the emotional drama of the characters, their useless struggles, and their destruction leave a lasting impression on the audience. LEE’s absolute estheticism is smeared in every corner of the movie, which is a double-edged sword with genre-typical fetishism and utter pessimism. (KIM Yeong Jin)