Monopoly Review

Kyung Ho is a meek, quiet natured financial advisor, a closeted homosexual with a background in computer hacking and a social life dominated by imagined conversations with his large collection of anime figures. Kyung Ho's life changes immeasurably when he meets John, a high powered Korean-American who heads the glamorous 1% Group, a team of highly successful young professionals who pool their skills to run an enormously successful investment fund with an eye to generating sufficient capital to install a Korean president of their choosing. Though John already has a lover in the beautiful Elly his relationship with Kyung Ho soon stretches beyond the platonic and the two become increasingly enmeshed in each others lives. Everything seems ideal in Kyung Ho's new life until, one day, he begins to see John's dark side, his willingness to completely toss morality aside to meet his goals and it isn't long before John draws Kyung Ho into a plan to swindle a simply staggering amount of money in a credit card scam that requires Kyung Ho's computer skills.

Though Lee shoots some impressive film Monopoly is undercut by a strangely detached script that keeps all of the principal characters away at arms length while also having little new to add to a scenario that has been played out prominently several times now. The end result is a film that is too predictable to play a mind game with and also not particularly engaging on an emotional level. While the imagery is frequently impressive it ultimately serves little purpose beyond simply looking pretty.

The Korean DVD release comes in a two disc set with the main feature well presented in the proper aspect ratio with three audio options - DTS, 5.1 and 2.0 - and English subtitles that are good but could have used a final proof reading.